


Fidus Achates

by xSpeechlessx



Category: GildedGuy, Hyun's Dojo, Slush Invaders
Genre: 29 is my limit boys, Best Friends, Blood, Body Horror, Bog is nasty and describes nasty things, Burns, Creepy, Cuts, Emetophobia, Fighting will happen, Gen, I'm just not including them all, Infection, It's the bois!!, Nothing sexual but just kinda graphic, Nothing too explicit but just to be safe, Psychological Torture, Well at least 4 anyway, all the defenders are here, almost forgot, and now he's going to do it here, and that's something he's willing to do, andrew can and will punch bog, angry defenders, check, dark creepy factory in the middle of the forest?, he has to do it through GG tho, hell yeah, here to save the day!!, let's give you some hints, literally he's done it in the games to save the other boys when they were blue, obviously, psycho ass slime monster?, sure, the rest are wreaking havoc in the town, they gon try and hunt them some slime, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:47:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24043837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSpeechlessx/pseuds/xSpeechlessx
Summary: Monsters don't sleep under your bedThey scream inside your head~AnonymousBog won.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. Dear Slush Defenders

Dear Slush Defenders,

I need your help! There's this guy that lives near my town that went missing a while ago and no one has seen him for almost two weeks! I know he wouldn’t have left without telling anyone, especially me! I’m scared something happened to him since he lives all by himself away from the town. He used to tell me about a group of fighters he lived with when he lived really far away in the city. I had to look through his stuff (Please don’t tell him!) to find your address, please come. I’ve left 2 gold coins from my flower sales in the envelope as payment. Come soon! Thank you!

Sincerely Lillian

p.s. I forgot to tell you his names GildedGuy!

P.p.s I live in the brick house near the edge of town!


	2. Silver and Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Fixed some minor grammar and formatting issues.

Andrew sighs deeply after reading over the letter for what felt like the millionth time. Next to him, Tucker tilts is head to side-eye him inquisitively.

“You’re going to give yourself gray hairs if you keep that up.” he teases. Though he sounds nonchalant, Andrew notices him toying with the orange bandana that hangs loosely around his neck, an old nervous habit of his, that throws his aloof disposition off. Never one to let his worries be known, except maybe to Thomas, Tucker prefers to keep his troubles close to his heart and try to work through them himself or ignore them. More than once, members of the team have had to force him to tell them what’s wrong so that they could help. This time though Andrew knew what was troubling the white figure, he himself was overtaken by the same irritating thoughts. The two are sitting together away from the others, not interested in the antics of the rowdier members of the Slush Defenders and instead take the time before bed to collect their thoughts and unwind from their day of travel.

“I’m worried.” He answers stiffly.

Tucker nods once before turning to view the rest of the camp from their secluded spot around a large bonfire, courtesy of Kyle and Hang, similar to others dotting the camp. It was dusk now, so everyone was winding down from their journey here and had split into uneven groups after setting up the camp. Some were playing cards; others were just talking, and a few were practicing their abilities safely away from everyone else. From where the two sat they could see Sean and Ben sparring, evident from the continuous glow from Ben's lightsaber and the periodic flashes of blue and orange from Sean’s portals. “I don’t think you’re the only one.”

It was true. At first glance, the defenders may seem relaxed, unperturbed by their current task, but a closer look reveals stiff shoulders and nervous glances. Small talk is highlighted by fidgeting fingers as they discuss the mission at hand with a tense atmosphere. What looks like casual sparring at first glance is preparing for any upcoming fight that they may have to deal with upon reaching Aegis town. The defenders were on edge.

Andrew sighs again before leaning back from his perch on the log they had fastened into a makeshift bench. “What kind of trouble could he have even gotten into way out here anyways?”

Tucker shrugs. “None of us have ever really traveled out here ‘cept Michael. For all we know there could be some big ass fire breathing dragon out here.”

Andrew gave him an unimpressed look before turning his attention back to the fire. “He never mentioned anything bad being out here in his letters though.” Though he had a cell phone Michael chose to send letters instead. Once a week, every Friday, the same day the defenders come together to hang out, a letter would arrive in the mail. Each one was always different, small doodles would decorate the cover and the inside was thick with parchment that told them of his most recent adventures, of the people he would meet, of the people he fought. It was his own way of being there.

Tucker frowns at his failed attempt at lightening the mood. “I honestly don’t think anything really bad was out here for him to get in trouble with.” When Andrew shoots him a quizzical look he elaborates. “I think he wandered off to meditate and lost track of time or he went on a quick trip and forgot to tell this kid beforehand.”

“For two weeks?”

“You know Michael. He has a tendency to get lost in his own goals.”

“I don’t kn-“

“Whatcha guys talking about?!” both fighters felt a heavy mass suddenly land on their shoulders and scrambled to redistribute their weight to keep from face planting. “You guys are looking super intense over here.”

“Thomas!” Andrew snapped at the dark blue figure and attempted to elbow him off. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Dodging the elbow, Thomas quickly scoots over so most of his weight is draped on Tucker instead, though he doesn’t remove his arm from around Andrew's shoulders. “I’m bored,” he groans. “They kicked me outta the card game.”

“Only cause he keeps cheating!” calls a voice from farther away.

“Besides,” he starts again after glaring at the offending voice. “You’re looking pretty glum over here fearless leader. Everything okay?”

“I’m just thinking.”

Thomas frowns slightly at the half answer before shoving his way between the two. Though they grumble they scoot over to make room.

“About?” he says after getting comfortable.

Andrew considers his answer carefully, though he has no qualms about advising in anyone on the team, he would rather not have everyone know he’s on edge. It would only cause the already nervous anxiety everyone had to spike, and they don’t need that right when they’re about to enter unknown territory, a lesson he learned when they almost burned down a whole city block when they went to investigate a call on some rogue blues that were reported in the area. It turned out to be some stupid prank pulled by some dumbass teenagers but one no one in the city ever tried pranking them again after that particular incident. It very nearly took down three buildings before they could contain it.

So, he hesitates, wary to spill too much, knowing that it could cause an uproar. But he also knows Thomas isn’t one to run around and blab anyone’s business, though he’s one of the more exuberant and outgoing members he’s also one of the best people to talk to for advice. “Do you think this is a waste of time?” he asks carefully.

Thomas’ frown deepens as he turns to sit on the log sideways, leaning his back against Tucker slightly, he considers Andrew seriously. “No.” he answers after a beat of silence.

“But what if it is? What if I dragged us all out here for nothing? What if he just ran off without telling anyone?”

“I think you should trust your decisions like everyone else has.” He says bluntly. Behind him, Tucker snickers a bit before nodding in agreement.

Andrew rolls his eyes and opens his mouth to reply but Thomas cuts him off, “You’re our leader and, believe it or not, there’s a reason we all decided to drop everything to come out here. We’re all worried about Michael but if you didn’t think it was a good idea to come and check on him, we wouldn’t have come. We all know you wouldn’t have called us together to check this out if you really didn’t think it was important or if you really didn’t think he needed help. You’re good about knowing when stuff is serious and when stuff should be ignored.”

Andrew purses his lips, unconvinced, “Okay.”

When it looks as if Thomas is going to start again, he adds. “I get it.” he pauses, “Though if he really did just wander off, I’m going to kick him all the way to the city and back.”

At this Thomas throws his head back and laughs, next to him Tucker snickers into his loose bandana. “Yeah? I think we’ll help just for him making all of us worry! It’ll be just like old times! But hey! If anything, this is a good opportunity to catch up with ‘im and see how he’s been doing out here.” He slides down the log to lean back against it with his hands as cushions and closes his eyes. “We could use a vacation too. I can’t even remember the last time we got some downtime. I think it’ll be nice to look around, catch up with Mic, meet some new people.”

Andrew rolls his eyes in amusement before standing. “It’s late. I’m heading to bed.” He turns to address the whole camp this time. “None of you stay up too late! We have an early start tomorrow if we’re going to make it to Aegis town by the afternoon.”

A chorus of ‘Yes Mom’ meets his call and he smirks before turning back to the other two. “Thanks for the pep talk.” Tucker nods and Thomas merely smiles from his relaxed position.

“No problem,” they answer simultaneously.

“Don’t forget to set up the watch for the night, make sure it's split evenly.”

They flash a thumbs up.

“And make sure Ben and Sean don’t set each other on fire too. Oh, and make sure Waqas get some r-“

“Dude, do I really have to use the mom joke twice?” Thomas is eyeing him with one slit eye. “Just go get some sleep! We’ll handle everything.” He waves him off nonchalantly before returning his hand to behind his head. Tucker grins up at him before shooing him away from his perched position. “You can count on us.”

With one half-embarrassed, half grateful nod, Andrew turns on his heel and makes his way to one of the large tents they had packed. As he passes, members of the defenders wish him good night until he finally reaches his destination. Unzipping the flap, he crawls in and makes his way to his ‘room’ near the entrance, gotta be ready to go if there’s trouble, and quickly gets ready to sleep. With a content sigh, he uses his bag as a pillow and lays back. He lets his mind wander for a moment as he slowly drifts off. So much could be waiting for them tomorrow, part of him really does hope this is a false alarm. He’d give Michael one hell of a lecture when he found him but, honestly, he’d prefer just a lecture. He doesn’t want to think that he actually got into trouble way out here and that he may have needed help for over two weeks now.

 _You better not have gotten into any deep shit out here Mic,_ he thinks drowsily as sleep consumes him. 

* * *

Tucker crosses his arms as he evaluates the small town from their position on top of a bright green hill awash with small flowers. From where they stand, they can make out several prominent structures in the area. In the center of the town sits a large gray castle with a pink flag waving proudly out front, a large forest sweeps out to the east seeming to go on for miles, on the edge of the forest a small abandoned house sits forlornly, and finally to the north lays a large open field that spreads out to the sea. “So,” he turns to address Andrew, “What’s the plan?”

“We go down there and find any clues we can and try to find this Lillian kid,” Andrew answers from his couched position. They had been monitoring the small town for about twenty minutes and so far, there had been no sign of anything dangerous. Nothing stuck out to them, which meant this was going to be harder than they thought. No threats meant no leads, and no leads meant longer searches unless they could find their mysterious contractor.

Tucker shrugs. “Seems easy enough, though it looks like this place is defended by a faction. They might be a problem.”

“Ha! No one’s a match for us! I say we run down there and demand they tell us where Michael is.” Thomas jumps forward to begin running down the hill. He makes it all of two steps before Tucker grabs his cape and yanks him back with a hard tug. With a yelp, he lands hard on his back and glares up at the white figure. “Hey!”

“Something tells me rushing in there isn’t the smartest idea,” Andrew calls the attention of the other two but addresses everyone. “That’s a Nemesis flag. Michael told us about them in one of his letters, remember?” a few members murmur in confirmation. “Michael fought their boss twice. Got his ass kicked the first time and got chased halfway to the Dojo the other time. These guys hit hard, causing trouble will only make things harder.”

“Yeah, but you know Mic. He wasn’t exactly a big fighter.” Kyle quips from the front of the pack. “And it was only him by himself.” Andrew turns to glare at him causing him to quickly backtrack. “Not that I think we should go down there and start attacking people.” He quickly remedies.

Turning back to address everyone Andrew continues. “Doesn’t matter. If we run down there and start acting like a threat to the town, and the faction protecting it, then they'll treat us like one. The faster we get on their good side, the faster we find Mic. Got it?”

Noises of agreement ring out and Andrew, satisfied, turns back to view the town. “Sean!” he calls out. A flash of orange appears beside him. Leaning casually against his shoulder Sean responds. “Yes?”

“I need you to take a few guys into town and explain that we’re coming. I wouldn’t bother with Nemesis since they most likely won’t get involved if the locals don’t sound the alarm, but spread the word a bit that we’re on the way, maybe start asking around about Michael and ask about the kid that sent the letter. He’s our best bet of getting this done fast and clean. You can choose who you want to go just…make them personable.”

“On it.” with a two-finger salute Sean disappears. Behind him, he hears the sound of a portal opening and Sean calling out a few names. After they’re gone the rest of the defenders begin making their way down the hill as one large group.

It doesn’t take long for them to reach the outskirts of the small town and, though a few townsfolk throw them curious glances, no one seems too alarmed. The group stands and observes the small, picturesque town. It’s quiet and peaceful, music drifts from somewhere in the distance and the town has a warm atmosphere that immediately puts the fighter’s agitation at ease. James steps up to stand next to Andrew, “Doesn’t seem like there’s anything that could cause trouble here.” He observes, eyes darting around the townsfolk milling about.

“Looks can be deceiving,” he answers before turning to address everyone. “Let’s split up and ask around.” He points to the large castle at the center of the town. “We’ll meet up there in an hour. Try to find out whatever you can about Michael and this Lillian kid. If you run into Sean and the others let ‘em know what the plan is. Got it?”

A chorus of affirmation comes from the group and, without any more prodding or instruction, they disperse.

The next hour is spent hounding random citizens for any information they can offer and chasing any lead he can get. The hour flies by and Andrew grumbles as he is once again turned away with no new information and begins trudging away, his mood sour. Though the townsfolk know of their silent gray friend, it seems like he almost never interacts with them. On top of that, it seems as if he is almost never actually in town and prefers to keep to himself. Andrew feels his gut twist slightly, was Michael really doing okay out here? If he needed help, he’d ask, right? He shakes his head to rid himself of the thoughts. There was no point in second-guessing Michaels's decision to move out here now. All they can do is track him down and kick his ass for making them worry so much. First, they have to find him though and that seems to be harder than anyone thought possible, especially with how withdrawn he was. Sighing he checks his watch and begins making his way to the center of town, he’s out of time and with no useful information here, he can only hope that the others had some better luck.

“Yo!” looking behind him Andrew spots Kyle jogging to catch up and slows down until they’re walking beside each other.

“Any luck?”

The orange figure shakes his head once and rolls his eyes. “You’d think that after almost three years out here he’d at least try and get to know the people he practically sees every day. No one can even tell me where his house is. You’d think he didn’t even live in town.” His tone is annoyed but there’s an undeniable worry there too.

Andrew's doubts from earlier come back full force at the revelation. “Maybe he-”

“Guys!” annoyed at the interruption Andrew turns to glare at the offending voice. Thomas is bounding over to the pair practically flying with Tucker following at a much more relaxed pace.

“Guys!” Thomas calls again. He halts in front of the two and begins excitedly walking backwards directly in front of them. Tucker opts to walk normally beside them and falls into step on the other side of Andrew. “We found someone that knows Mic!”

His annoyance forgotten; Andrew gives him his full attention. “Who?”

On his right, Tucker gestures with his head. “She’s back at the meetup. She said that they do show's every week at the local bar.”

“She’s kinda cute.” Thomas quips causing Tucker to roll his eyes.

“T? Focus!”

“I am focused! I can’t help it if she’s super cute!”

“We’re here to find Mic, not flirt with one of his friends!”

Andrew rolls his eyes as the two start to bicker, he quickens his pace to move past them with Kyle hot on his heels. He spots the meet point and notices that most of the defenders have already arrived and were already swapping information as they waited for Andrew. He stops next to Eric as he passes. “Where’s James?” Pointing him in the right direction he dodges through the group until he finally spots his second in command. Leaving Kyle to fill in the others he continues through the throng of stick figures to the area where Eric had pointed. James is chatting with a red female figure that can only be the girl Thomas and Tucker told him about. James, upon spotting his approach, waves him over.

The girl turns as he nears and gives him a small smile. Stopping in front of the two he nods once at James before addressing her. “Hi, my names Andrew.” He holds his hand out for her to shake. “I heard you can help us?”

She nods as she takes his hand and shakes it quickly before pulling back. “My name’s Penny. Me and G do shows together.” She frowns. “I haven’t seen him for a while though.”

“Can you tell us the last time you saw him? Did he seem like he was in trouble?”

She considers his questions for a moment before shaking her head with a shrug. “He seemed fine. No more nervous than usual. He missed one of our shows last week, but I just thought he had an emergency.” She stops to think for a moment, humming thoughtfully. “I think the last time I actually saw him was around two or so weeks ago.”

“Okay…” Andrew looks down for a moment. “So, you don’t have any idea where he might have gone?”

She shakes her head apologetically. “No. I’m sorry.”

Andrew drops his gaze once more. He feels his frustration start to build again as he tries to figure out where to go from here. So far, all they’ve done is hit one dead end after the other since arriving in town. With no new leads and no new information, it seemed like they weren’t going to make any headway today and all their work would be a waste. Not to mention that Mic would be missing for even longer. Fuck.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help more.” Andrew looks up when she speaks and sees her eyebrows are drawn together in worry. “Is everything okay? Did G get in some trouble.”

Andrew glances at James. “No, we think it may have been a false alarm.” He pulls the slightly crumpled letter out of his pocket and presents it to her. “We got this letter a few days ago saying he might have gotten in something and came to make sure everything was okay.”

She takes the letter and quickly scans it before looking back up at him. “I know Lillian. He’s this little kid that follows G around. Real sweet, likes to sell flowers from his back yard sometimes.”

James shoots him a surprised look. “You do? Can you take us to him?”

She purses her lips and checks her watch. “I can’t,” she says regretfully. “I have a show in 20 minutes. I can tell you where to find him though. He isn’t far from here.”

He nods eagerly “Any new information would be great. We just want to make sure this isn’t a false alarm before jumping to conclusions.”

She smiles and quickly gives him instructions on how to find the kid. With a new lead, Andrew calls for the others to head out before turning back to Penny. “Thanks for your help. You’re the first person that’s actually had something useful for us since we arrived.”

She giggles. “It’s no problem.” Her smile falls just as quickly as it arrived, and she looks up at him almost pleadingly. “If he’s in trouble…bad trouble, will you bring him back? Please? I know you said you think it’s a false alarm…but if Lillian is asking for help…”

Andrew offers her a smile. “You don’t have to worry. If he’s got himself into any trouble, we’ll get him out of it.” He moves to follow his team but pauses. “I’m glad he has at least one friend out here. We were all worried about him being all alone.”

That brings her smile back. “I’m not his only friend. He has Lillian too. And Jade.”

“Still. Thank you for being there for him.”

Her smile brightens further. “he’s a good friend, it isn’t hard.”

Waving goodbye, he turns and begins jogging after the receding figures of his friends. Though they still hadn’t managed to track down their missing member Andrew feels lighter than he has in days. It was nice, knowing Michael wasn’t completely alone out here. Though he and the others were nothing but supportive about him moving, none of them could quite hide the worry they felt about him being so far away in unfamiliar territory. So to learn that he had at least three people looking out for him sends a wave of relief crashing through him.

 _Looks like you’re doing alright after all Mic,_ he thinks before picking up his pace to catch up to the rest of his team.

* * *

They’re almost to the small brick house near the edge of town by the time he catches up, Penny wasn’t kidding it really was close. Andrew is out of breath, but no one comments as he jogs through the ranks to make his way back to the front to fall in step beside James.

“She was nice,” James comments matter-of-factly.

Thomas calls out from behind them. “She was more than nice!” he’s kept from adding more as Tucker elbows him hard in the side, knocking the breath out of him. A few chuckles ripple from the guys as Thomas squawks indignantly after catching his breath.

Andrew rolls his eyes but otherwise doesn’t comment, instead, he responds to James. “Yeah, I’m just glad she could tell us where to go.” He pauses for a moment, “And that Mic has a few people looking out for him out here.”

James chuckles. “Did you think he was just going to hide out in the woods?”

“That doesn’t seem too far from the truth, honestly.”

James rolls his eyes with a smirk but doesn’t reply. Instead, he turns and inclines his head in front of him “Looks like we’re here.” They come around the corner of a tall stone building and see a long wood fence that surrounds a small garden, hanging by the front gate is a large sign reading ‘Flower Sale’. At the very back of the garden, a small gray figure sits on his knees with his back to them as he fusses with something they can’t see.

Andrew waves at the guys to stop and takes a few steps into the enclosed area. At first glance, he notices rows of small recovering flowers, there are several posters taped to the walls but the largest one in the center is the one that captures his full attention. It’s a crude drawing of Michael titled ‘Magic Show’ with what looks like small flowers dotting it. Next to it is a similarly drawn poster but instead of Michael, it features what has to be the kid. Andrew smirks, looks like Mic has a fan.

“Can I help you?”

Andrew jumps hard when a small voice suddenly interrupts his thoughts. He hears a few snickers behind him and turns to glare at the guys momentarily before turning his attention to the small figure standing in front of him. The boy looks up at him with wide baby blue eyes and has his hands tucked behind his back innocuously. His painters mask has been shoved up to rest on top of his head and he sways on the balls of his feet to his heel as he waits for Andrew to answer him.

“Um yes were here to-to.” Still off-kilter from the jump Andrew stutters for a moment trying to think of where to start.

The kid takes pity on him. “To buy flowers?” he hears the guys snicker behind him again and resists the urge to send another scathing look over his shoulder.

He recovers and pulls the crumpled letter out of his pocket. “Uh, no. We’re here about your letter? We’re the Sl-” Instantly the boy's eyes light up with excitement.

“The Slush Defenders! You came!” wasting no time, the kid grabs Andrew and begins yanking him towards the gate. “You have to come with me! I think something awful happened to GildedGuy.”

Andrew stumbles slightly as the kid pulls him. Afraid pulling away suddenly might cause the kid to fall he allows himself to be pulled while struggling to keep his balance. “Kid wait!” the kid doesn’t stop or even acknowledge his cry, too caught up his quest. He stumbles again and when he almost loses his footing completely, he digs his heels into the dirt. “Stop!”

That gets his attention. Turning, the kid looks up at him with wide eyes and quickly releases his hand. “I’m sorry,” he says quickly.

Andrew sighs as the kid looks down and kneels in front of him. “You don’t have to be sorry. Just slow down, okay?” once again he holds the letter out and the kid takes it. “We need to talk about your letter.”

Lillian nods determinedly. “Yeah! I think he might have gotten into some trouble! He’s been missing for a while and I think he needs help!”

“But are you sure he’s actually missing? Are you sure he didn’t just wander off?” Andrew aims to keep his voice even and accusation free. He does believe the kid thinks Mic is in trouble, and a more silent part of him wants to believe he isn’t, but he needs to hear the whole story before he can make an informed decision.

The kid freezes and gives him a disbelieving look. “You don’t believe me?”

Andrew quickly backtracks and lays his hand on the kids’ shoulder in comfort. “It’s not that we don’t believe you kid. He’s an adult, maybe he just got too busy to come by and let you know where he was going is all.”

Lillian shoves his hand off his shoulder angrily and takes a few steps away from him. Andrew stiffens as a few fat tears begin building in the child’s eyes. “No! He wouldn’t have done that! He always tells me when he’s leaving!” he sniffs deeply, hands clenching in frustration. “You’re just like everyone else! They don’t believe me either! Telling me that he just left! That I’m overreacting and need to stop butting into his business! That he’s an adult and he doesn’t need some kid to cause more trouble for him!” He sniffs hard as he attempts to hold back his tears. “I don’t know who else to go to! I thought you were his friends!” 

“We are!” Andrew attempts to calm him and holds his hands out placatingly.

“Then why won’t you help me!” he cries. Andrew balks as the kid buries his face in his hands and starts crying fully. His shoulders shake hard as he fights to hold in his sobs.

The blue figure freezes as he tries to figure out what to do. He’s never been great with kids and crying kids are completely unknown territory to him. In desperation, he turns back to the group from where they casually lean against the fence in a line. James is rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he’s warding off an oncoming headache and Thomas and Tucker are giving him disbelieving twin looks. Rolling his eyes Matt decides to take pity on their thoughtless leader and elbows Sean. The two disappear in a flash of orange and reappear next to him in a flash of blue. Sean elbows him teasingly as Matt steps forward to help calm the kid. “Nice going ‘drew. Only been here a few hours and already made our informant cry.”

Andrew just sighs in relief when Matt crouches down to comfort the crying child. He coos softly to make the kid look at him and then hands him some cloth to wipe his eyes. “No one’s saying we don’t believe you kiddo.” He says gently. “If that were the case, we wouldn’t have bothered coming all the way out here.”

Lillian sniffs but doesn’t say anything, instead, he looks up at Matt warily, but he doesn’t make a move to step away from him. Matt smiles at him warmly. “You must be a really good friend of his. To ask us to come all the way out here and even pay for it all on your own.”

Lillian blows his nose and nods. “We hang out a lot. I watch his magic shows every week. It’s really good!”

Matt laughs. “So we’ve heard. Maybe he can sample a show for us when we find him.” He looks around and whistles lowly. “Looks like you’ve got one green thumb too kid. Did you plant all of these flowers?”

Lillian smiles and puffs up proudly. “It’s nothing, I fix them up and sell them when they’re better. It’s how I help out my mom and dad!”

“That so? That’s awesome! You’re so grown up earning your own money like that and helping your parents out. And you were willing to spend a little just to help out Michael? Sounds like he’s in good hands.”

At the mention of the missing figure, Lillian’s smile drops slightly. “I don’t know…I couldn’t even find him on my own and no one would believe me when I told them he was missing.” He bites his lip and looks away worriedly. “What if he really did just forget to tell me where he was going?

“And that’s okay.” Matt soothes. “It sounds like he may have wandered off and gotten into some trouble. It’s gonna be okay now though, we’re some of the best fighters from where we’re from and Michael is one of us. And if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And if he really did just forget to tell you before he left? We’ll drag him back by his ear and make him apologize,”

Lillian sags in relief and giggles. He gives them his brightest smile yet. “Thank you. For believing me.”

Matt mock jabs him in the cheek. “No problem kid. It looks like you’re really worried about Michael and if you think he’s in trouble then well look into it. We’ll bring that knucklehead home one way or the other. First though, we need you to tell us everything you know so we can try and figure out a good course of action from there, okay?”

Lillian nods enthusiastically. Matt stands and turns to gesture Andrew forward. Stepping closer he hesitantly comes to a stop next to Matt and rubs the back of his head awkwardly as the kid looks up at him cautiously. “Can you tell us where he lives? That might be the best place to start looking around.”

Lillian purses his lips. “I could just take you there.”

Andrew glances up at the quickly darkening sky and grimaces. “We can’t let you do that kid. It’s getting dark and we don’t know what we’ll find up there.”

He expects him to argue and is surprised when he simply sighs and nods. “Yeah, I figured that’s what you’d say.” He sighs again. “His house is on the outskirts near the dead forest. It's the only one so I don’t think it’ll be hard to find.”

Andrew jolts at that. “That old looking abandoned house!? Why does he live out there?”

Lillian shrugs. “I don’t know, he’s lived out there since I met him. Maybe he likes being alone? He disappeared about two weeks ago, and no one’s seen him anywhere. Most everyone thinks he just went on a trip to the Dojo, but he never mentioned it to me.”

Andrew considers the new information thoughtfully. “Okay, we can work with this.” He nods gratefully to the boy. “Thanks, this should give us a good idea on where he may have gone.”

Lillian returns the nod hesitantly but doesn’t say anything else. With that, Andrew turns and, with Sean and Matt, begins to make his way out of the garden. Andrew hesitates at the gate and turns to look at the small figure, he has the urge to say something, anything, to make some sort of amends with him but he can’t think of anything to say. So, instead, he gives a small wave and turns to exit the garden. The boy doesn’t wave back, and Andrew can’t deny the sting he feels at that. He doesn’t know this kid but it's obvious that Mic did and that they both care about each other. To be on the wrong terms with the small figure feels wrong, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. They have a job to do now, maybe he can make amends later when they’re all back safe, but for now, focusing on the task at hand is the only important thing.

As he passes, James cuffs him on the back head lightly. “You could have handled that a little bit more delicately ‘drew!” he bites but he pauses when he sees Andrew face. “Andrew?” Waving off the concern Andrew pushes past him and, as a group, they all turn and begin making their way in the direction Lillian had pointed them. They could talk later.

“Wait!”

Turning Andrew sees Lillian running after them and stops to allow him to catch up. James and Matt both pause but he waves them on and turns to greet the little gray figure. Shrugging they turn and follow the group down the hill. Upon reaching them he huffs a bit from the exertion and looks up at Andrew with determination. He holds up something small for him to take.

“A flower?” He holds the small purple poppy up for closer inspection before giving Lillian a confused look.

“It’s my good luck charm! Me and GildedGuy made them together one Christmas.” he points at it seriously. “I kept one and it always helps me feel safe when I’m scared. When you find him, can you give it to him? I want him to have it so if he ever gets into trouble again it’ll help him!”

Andrew feels his heart melt. “Sure kid. I’m sure he’ll really appreciate it.” He carefully tucks the small flower into the pouch around his hip.

Lillian smiles warmly. “You think so?”

He nods. “Definitely.” Andrew suddenly feels the urge to say something else. To once again make an attempt to make amends. Instead, he says, “You should head home kid, it’s already dark and I’m sure your parent are wondering where you went.”

Lillian nods but makes no move to go. Sensing he wats to say something else Andrew gives him a moment to collect his thoughts and tell him what he has to say. “I’m sorry…for yelling at you earlier, and for saying you weren’t really his friends.” His face twists regretfully. “It wasn’t fair. You came all the way here to help and all I did was yell at you.”

Andrew is taken aback as the kid fidgets awkwardly in front of him. After a moment he smiles softly. “It’s okay.” He says softly. “I’m sorry too.” At this Lillian looks up at him in surprise. “I shouldn’t have made you think we didn’t believe you. I should have known you wouldn’t have called us out here for nothing. You clearly care about Michael and I shouldn’t have second-guessed that for a moment.”

Lillian looks up at him with a vulnerable expression and for a moment Andrew worries he’s about to cry again. Just as he’s about to ask him if he’s alright the kid shoots forward and wraps his arms around his waist. Andrew freezes but after a moment awkwardly pats the kid’s shoulders. “Kid?”

“Thank you...” the kid mumbles so quietly that he almost misses it. After a moment Lillian steps away and looks up at him with slightly wet eyes. “Please…bring him back.”

“You can count on us kid. I promise.”

At that Lillian nods once and begins backing away slowly, when he’s about 10 feet away he waves just once before turning and running back the way he came. Andrew watches him until he’s reached the safety of his home before turning and once again rushing after the distant silhouettes of his friends.

* * *

The Defenders traverse over the dark hills quickly, with no more time to look for their friend today they rushed to at least find one last clue from his home before they retired for the night. At the front of the group is Hang and Kyle as they use their fire to light the way. Overhead the moon hangs in a semi crescent next to the bright green star that always captured Michael's attention. It isn’t long before they finally make it to the dark house that sits on the very edge of a dark and foreboding forest. It looks worn down and on the cusp of collapsing immediately. None of the Defenders comment as the stand outside and take in the sad sight. It’s Thomas who finally breaks the silence. “Are we sure this actually his house?” He steps over to the porch and inspects the wood closely in the dim light. “It looks like it's falling apart.”

Andrew ignores him and begins walking around the perimeter of the building. Thomas wasn’t exaggerating, it really did look like this house was falling apart. How the hell did Michael live here without being worried about the roof caving in on top of him? He’s ripped out of his analysis of the house when he suddenly hears a yelp followed by a loud crash. Turning quickly, he darts around the corner of the house already prepared to fight. The sight that greets upon sliding around the house causes him to skid to a stop in shock. Thomas lays about two feet away from the porch on his back, on the porch lays a large piece of wood looking as if it had fallen from the ceiling. “What did you do!?” he asks incredulously. “I was gone for two minutes!”

“Nothing!” Tucker walks over and pulls Thomas to his feet. “I was just looking in the window when that huge piece of wood almost took my head out! If this really is Michael’s house, then someone really needs to talk to him about maintenance! It’s like he wants the roof to cave in and kill him!”

Andrew rolls his eyes and pushes past the indignant blue figure, leaning over he looks up and notes the ceiling is, in fact, missing a support beam. Turning back, he steps up to the porch. Eyeing the ceiling he cautiously takes a step and waits. When nothing happens, he continues over to the door slowly. After a moment’s hesitation, he cautiously tries the doorknob, it opens with a resounding click and Andrew swings the door open. He takes a hesitant step inside and squints to make out something in the darkness. “Michael?” no answer, though he honestly didn’t expect one. He calls over his shoulder. “Kyle! Hang! I need a light!” A moment later he hears the two cautiously traversing the porch to reach him. Immediately the room is bathed in a green and orange light, allowing him to get a good look around. It’s a small and bare room. Off to one side, a bed lays against the wall beside a window. In the very back, a workbench and desk sits against the wall and is overrun with sketch papers. All over the walls sketches and designs are taped up. Spotting a lamp in the far-left corner he motions for Kyle to light it as he steps out to let the others know it was safe.

It doesn’t take long for the group to completely overrun the small room as they eagerly explore and take in the sketches on the walls and desk. Andrew leans against the door frame as they look around. He notices a few of the guys snickering at the small rag doll dangling from the edge of the bed and smirks. Mic was definitely going to hear about that later. His mirth diminishes almost as soon as it arrived, and he frowns. With one last glance around the warm room he turns and steps out onto the porch to sit and think. He isn’t out there for more than thirty seconds when he hears steps walking up from behind him. A moment later James sits down next to him with a heavy thud. They sit in companionable silence for a moment before the dark green figure speaks. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Andrew doesn’t answer immediately but eventually, he sighs. “We need a plan.”

James cocks an eyebrow at him. “You don’t say?”

Andrew doesn’t answer him, and James immediately drops the joking tone to talk to him seriously. “We have a plan. We look around his house, find some clues, and track him down. Simple as that.”

Andrew shakes his head. “We need a different plan. We’re in unfamiliar territory and we still don’t have any idea where Mic even is.”

“You have an idea?”

Andrew is silent for a moment. “We need to split up. We can cover more ground and get more information.”

James considers this for a moment. “Alright. We can do that, but is that the best idea? If Michael really was attacked it could be dangerous. Mic wasn’t the best fighter back at the tower, but he could still hold his own just fine. If he really was beaten, then the idea of any of us being caught alone doesn’t sit right with me.”

Andrew nods, considering his counter-argument. This was one of the reasons James was his second in command. He didn’t mind challenging him when he thought he needed to reassess his orders and was always willing to give him advice on what to do when he couldn’t think of anything. Calm when Andrew was captured by the Blues, he had been the one to step up and sound the alarm and get the team moving. The dark green figure was one of the most reliable and levelheaded people on the team and Andrew knew if anything ever went south James would step up and take command. But Andrew stands firm in his decision. “We also can’t afford to waste time looking as one big group. He lives here, there could be a thousand clues on where he might have gone. Splitting up could be detrimental to finding him.”

James once again considers his argument quietly. “Okay ‘drew. Let’s say we do split. Do we all go in separate directions? Do we go in teams? And how long do we look before we meet back up? What if we find Mic? What if he’s hurt…or worse?”

“I don’t know!” Andrew snaps. He feels his head swim as a headache works its way like a tight band around his head. The implication that they came all this way just to recover a corpse sets him on edge. He places his head in his hands as he feels dread coil itself heavily in his stomach, “I don’t know.” He groans.

James backs off, that’s another good thing about him, he knows when to keep pushing an issue and when to drop it. He loops his arm around Andrews's shoulders comfortingly. “Okay man, we don’t have to deal with this right now. It’s late and we’ve all had a busy day. I say we tuck in for the night and then we can make any big decisions tomorrow.”

Though he wants to argue, wants to figure this out here and now, Andrew can’t deny that all of the exhaustion from the day is catching up to him. He feels as if he’s fought all of Big Blues army on his own and run all over Slush City. After a moment he nods. “I think that’s a good idea.” He glances back into the house. The guys are still poking around, eager to see what their friend had been up to while living so far away. A few laugh at a joke he didn’t hear. “You think Mic’ll mind if we take over his house for the night?”

James shrugs. “S’not like he’s here to tell us we can’t.”

Andrew chuckles and turns to admire the dark blue sky for a moment, taking in the splash of stars quietly. He lets the warm laughter from the house wash over him and feels his nerves already calming. Feeling better he stands and stretches. “Thanks for the talk man.”

James bows his head. “No problem.” He stands and smirks. “Gotta make sure you don’t lose your head, I’m not ready to take over just yet. Maybe in a few years.”

Andrew rolls his eyes with a grin. “You’re gonna be waiting a while, dude.” He turns and the two make their way into the house to inform the group that they’d be staying the night.


	3. Rescue Mission

“What in the fresh hell happened out here?”

The group of four had stumbled upon a clearing that had been almost completely cleared of any undergrowth. Burns littered the area randomly and it looked as if hundreds of trees were completely shredded in one swing. Some sort of battle had clearly happened here, the real question was: Did it have something to do with Michael?

It was the day after they had arrived in Aegis town and the Slush Defenders had officially started looking for Michael. The next morning, James and Andrew had rehashed their discussion from the previous night. Andrew still wanted to split up, thinking it was the best option for covering the most ground possible, therefore improving their chances of finding their missing member today. James still wasn’t keen on the idea though. The second in command had argued that they should stick together. ‘What if we get attacked?’ he had reasoned. ‘We still don’t know if Mic was beaten by something dangerous so how do we know what to expect?’ Andrew stood firm though if they spent too much time carefully treading the area that was just more time Mic was left alone and possibly hurt. Splitting up was the best option. The rest of the team watched from the sidelines with their heads swiveling back and forth as each threw their own case at the other. Eventually, they came to an agreement, they would split up, but they would travel in teams, each team would be assigned an area to investigate. When it started getting dark everyone was to meet back at Michael's house, no exceptions. Breaking the order would result in harsh punishment once they returned to Slush City.

After dividing everyone into teams they had all bid each other farewell and made their way to their respective areas. Andrews's chosen team consisted of Thomas, Tucker, and Kyle. Some of their hardest hitters, mostly due to the fact that their chosen area of search was the dark and foreboding forest that lay on the edge of Michael’s house. Thomas continues. “Did Mic do this!? Was he practicing his second job as a lumberjack or some crap?”

Andrew frowns as he inspects the ground around them. Deep gouges scraped along in random and chaotic patterns, almost as if something, or someone, had been repeatedly slammed and dragged around. Trying not to think too hard about the implication of Michael being thrown around like a rag doll, he shakes his head before calling out. “Let’s take a look around. Check for anything that might give us an idea of whether he was here or not and stay in the clearing, we don’t know what’s out here.”

They nod and all four splits off to search the clearing as Andrew continues to inspect the gouges in the ground critically. After walking for a few feet, he pauses, on the ground, a small glint catches his eye. Kneeling, he pushes the dirt away and feels his blood freeze. It was Michael's pen, it shimmered pitifully weak as if all of the energy had been drained from it. Picking it up gently he turns it over in his palm, the normally bright green star on it is completely black. Michael would never have left this behind. Back at their old hangout not a day went by where the team wouldn’t see it somewhere on his person, be it tucked behind his ear, held in his hand, or even wrapped around his neck. He pushes himself to his feet, eyes still glued to the dull green pen. Something bad had happened to their friend, it was more than clear now. He doesn’t have much more time to think of all of the terrible things that may have happened before he’s pulled out of his thoughts by a shout. Head instantly snapping up he scans for his team. He spots Tucker jogging over to the farthest side of the clearing away from Andrew with Kyle coming up from the other direction. Thoughts conjuring up dark images of what may have caused Thomas to shout, he abandons his area and jogs over to where the cry had originated.

By the time Andrew catches up, the other two are already there with Tucker crouched down next to him and Kyle Standing over the two looking down hard at something in front of them. “What happened!?”

No one answers him, but Thomas turns slightly at his exclamation and gives his leader a dismayed look. “I found something.” He whispers and holds up two items, the twin gold gloves that complete Michael's armor. Each is covered in a fine layer of dirt and grime from their stay outside for so long. But that wasn’t all. Andrew once again feels his blood turn to ice when he looks over Thomas’ shoulder at what lay in front of him.

Piercing the ground, hilt pointed skyward, sits Michaels rubber sword, rust runs up the dark red metal hiding the usually pristine reflection from them. That alone is a cause for concern, it proves that it had been out here long enough for the rust to form, that Michael had been without it for this long, but what leaves the Defenders absolutely frozen with horror is the twin dark stains that run down the blade.

Andrew rushes forward. “Tucker?” Already the white figure had pulled some of the flaky substance off of the blade to roll over his fingers. He inspects it closely before grimacing in disgust and wipes it on the ground.

“It’s definitely blood.” He keeps his voice even but can’t quite keep the slight warble of worry and anger out his tone. He looks closer at the pinned sword. “I can’t say if it’s Mic’s or not, but I can tell you that it looks like it didn’t go through anything.” He points to the edge of the blade. “The blood runs on either side but doesn’t go all the way through the middle. It was used to cut but it wasn’t used to impale anything.”

Andrew feels a bit of tension leave him but still stays on alert. He glances down at the gloves still held in Thomas’ hands. “I have a pretty good idea on what was cut.”

Thomas and Kyle look down at the gloves in distress while Tucker simply glances at them. Nodding, he continues, “Yeah, it matches up. It looks like he might have sliced his palms. The big question here is: Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Andrew looks up as Thomas stands. He’s still holding the gloves, but his hands are shaking slightly, almost as if it’s taking all of his control not to crush them. “Something made him do it. He wouldn’t do something like this if he wasn’t desperate.” He scowls hard and turns on his heel. “I’m gonna find out who attacked him and cave their skull in.”

“Now hold on!” Andrew jumps up and grabs the cape trailing behind Thomas. “You can’t storm off. We have to stay together!” Thomas turns and glares at him and attempts to rip the fabric from Andrew's hold, but he tightens his grip and meets his gaze evenly, refusing to back down. Thomas may be able to kick his ass from one side of the clearing to the other with one punch but he was the leader, and he wasn’t going to let him get himself killed just because he couldn’t control his temper.

Tucker comes to stand beside him. “He’s right T. If you wander off and get attacked by the same guy who attacked Mic, then you won’t be helping anyone, and we’ll have to find and save you too.”

Thomas turns his glare on the white figure, “I don’t need anyone to save me.” He bites back. Tucker doesn’t flinch and gives his friend an unimpressed look.

“We’ll find him,” Kyle speaks up as he comes to stand beside the two, catching Thomas’ attention. He holds the sword in his hands gingerly and gives Thomas a determined look. “And then we’ll all find whoever did this and Kick. Their. Ass.”

“Please,” Andrew says after a moment, almost pleadingly. “I don’t want to lose anyone else on my team.”

Thomas visibly slacks at that and looks down. “Okay…” he says. Andrew nods and finally releases his cape; it flutters to hang around his ankles pathetically. Tucker steps forward and places his arm around his blue friends’ shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s okay dude. He’s hurt, not dead.” He gestures around. “There’s no body, which means he’s alive somewhere. All we got to do is find him.”

Thomas nods but still looks upset. “This fucking sucks.”

“I know.” Tucker shoves him slightly “But it isn’t hopeless. We’ll find him and then he’ll show us that magic show everyone keeps telling us about.”

Thomas chuckles quietly.” It better be the best show ever.”

“Uh, guys?” Turning, the three turn to look at Kyle who had stayed silent during the exchange. He’s looking down at the sword with raised eyebrows. “You might wanna see this.”

Moving closer and crowding around the bright orange figure they all look down into the red blade. Andrew sucks in a sharp breath at what he sees. “What the fuck is that?!” Never one to curse, Andrew is truly taken aback by what they see reflecting back at them. A large and monstrous beast is glaring up at them menacingly. It grins maniacally, all teeth, before throwing itself at them forcefully through the reflection. No one flinches but an uneasy feeling settles in Andrew's stomach at the aggressive move. What exactly was this? After a moment the image flickers weakly before quickly being replaced by a crumbling building surrounded by black trees.

“What the hell?” Kyle murmurs.

“It looks like a factory…?” Tucker answers. “Is it trying to tell us something?”

“Shhh, look!” Andrew shushes the two as the image flickers once again. All four freeze at what they see next. Michael sits with his back to them in the image. His normally shimmering armor is dull, in some places it's cracked and chipped. His long and red cape is awash with filth and is torn almost all the way up his back. Before they can react the image fades and they are left with their own horrified reflections looking back up at them.

“What was that!?” Kyle shakes the sword slightly as if he was trying to make it show them again, when it stays the same dull red he snarls and throws it down harshly.

Thomas is shaking again, and for a moment Andrew worries that he’ll try to run off again and this time no amount of persuading will be able to stop him. “Is this some kind of stupid fucking joke?” he spits out instead.

“Calm down.” Tucker sits down in front of the sword and deftly scoops it up. Laying it carefully across his lap he summons his twin daggers and begins scraping the dried blood from the metal in long strides, his hands shake ever so slightly. “Freaking out isn’t going to help.”

Thomas whirls on him. “I don’t want to calm down!”

“We all thought he was in trouble before coming out here.” Tucker reasons. “This just confirms it.”

Thomas grits his teeth and spits back. “That doesn’t make it any better! How can you act all calm? Do you even give a crap?”

Tucker freezes and stops cleaning the blade to glare up Thomas with an injured look. “That’s-”

“That’s enough!” Andrew snaps, finally stepping in when the argument looks as if it'll continue to escalate. “Stop arguing like children! We have bigger things to worry about!” he glares at each of them before softening. “I know we’re all stressed out but turning on each other won’t help anything.” He sighs and looks up; the sun is directly overhead. “We’ve already wasted too much time just here. Are we really going to waste more blaming each other and starting fights?”

Thomas speaks first, looking ashamed and guilty, as he looks at Tucker. “Sorry,” he murmurs, “I didn’t mean it. It just kinda slipped out.”

Tucker doesn’t say anything and looks down. “Apology accepted.” He answers lukewarm as he continues working on the weapon, the sting from the accusation obviously still there. Andrew exhales tiredly but doesn’t interfere, they weren’t children, and they had had worse fights before. They’d make up and be back to their regular crap sooner or later.

Thomas winces and looks down dejectedly. “Alright.”

Andrew steps up to Kyle, who up to this point had been watching the exchange between the two silently. He wasn’t too worried about their quarreling, but it was always a shock to see the power team fight seriously, as rare as it was. “Do you think you can use your fire to get above the trees to look around?”

Looking up, Kyle gives him a confused look. “Maybe. Why?”

“I want you to see if you can spot anything that may be out here. The sword showed us a building, so maybe it’s around here.”

“I can try but I’m not sure if I can hold it for long, and it’ll take a lot just to get over the trees.”

“You don’t have to do it for long, just get a look around. See if you can spot anything.” Kyle nods in understanding before jogging a short way away from the group. When he's adequately far enough he shoots Andrew a nervous look before shooting two bright green jets of fire from his palms. Upping the power, he slowly hovers off the ground unsteadily before blasting even more flames from his palms to push him skyward. Andrew watches him go until he’s only a dot above them. Remembering the other item he’d found earlier Andrew looks in his hand to admire the green Stellapen. The star on the front is still black and foreboding, a sure sign that something is wrong, and grimaces at it before carefully tucking the precious item in his pouch, right next to the small flower that Lillian had gifted him yesterday.

He glances up to make sure Kyle was still handling himself before turning back to the other two members of their search party. Already Thomas is sitting near Tucker and is talking to him too quietly for Andrew to hear. Smiling softly, he turns back to wait for Kyle to get back.

Not even 10 minutes later Andrew watches as the orange figure descends from the sky, he slowly depletes the flames shooting from his hands until he’s about 5 feet above the ground before cutting it completely. Falling gracefully, he lands neatly on his feet, until, almost immediately, he falls hard to his knees.

Alarmed, Andrew runs over and is taken aback by the wrecked state he’s in. Kyle is sweating profusely and is panting hard. A sheen of sweat drips from his forehead and his eyes are bloodshot. At his concerned look he shrugs and answers him between breaths. “That…was…harder than…I thought,” he gasps.

Andrew digs into the bag they had brought with them and hands him a water bottle, Kyle takes it gratefully and takes a few swigs before pouring some onto his palms. Andrew grimaces upon seeing his palms bright red with blisters already forming.

“Okay, no more doing that. Why would you stay up there so long if it was burning you?”

Kyle laughs, a sound that doesn’t help with Andrew's concern, before admiring his burned hands with a bemused expression and shrugs. “I wanted to get a good look around. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get that high again, so I had to make it count.”

Andrew shakes his head before pulling Kyle's arm over his shoulder and leading him back to the other two. Telling him to sit and catch his breath, Andrew tosses him another water bottle before turning to sit down on the opposite side of him with Tucker and Thomas between them. At this point Thomas had stripped his cape and allowed Tucker to wrap the freshly clean sword in it, they had secured it to Tuckers back for safekeeping and were looking much better than earlier.

Silently relieved they had managed to clear the air so fast; he leans back and sips some water, thinking on their recent findings. He notices Kyle grimacing whenever he uses his hands and rolls his eyes in exasperation. “Tucker, can you wrap his hands for me?”

Tucker gives him a confused look before turning to look at Kyle with a raised eyebrow. Seemingly embarrassed, Kyle flips his hands over with a sheepish expression. Upon seeing his wrecked hands Tucker sucks in a sharp breath. Instantly moving closer he immediately pulls out some gauze from their bag and begins wrapping the damaged digits carefully.

Thomas scoots over to peer over Tucker's shoulder at his other hand. He grimaces as he takes in the shiny blisters. “Nasty, dude. Does it hurt?”

Andrew rolls his eyes. “It probably doesn’t feel great Thomas.” As soon as Tucker finishes wrapping his hands, he pours some water over them to cool the burns. Kyle sighs in relief when the heat diminishes slightly.

“No more playing with fire unless you can help it.” Tucker orders sternly “You’ll only agitate the burns and make them worse and I don’t have the right stuff to deal with any bad injuries until we get out of here.”

Kyle nods as he admires the skillfully wrapped bandages. “Thanks, Tuck.”

Andrew allows them to rest a bit more before catching their attention. “Did you manage to find anything while up there?”

“Oh, yeah!” pointing in the direction to their left he points through thick foliage into the dark forest. “Not far from here I saw an old abandoned factory.” He turns back. “It looked pretty run down but it looked pretty similar to the building we saw earlier.”

“Alright.” Pushing himself to his feet Andrew looks down at Kyle. “You good now?” When he nods Andrew gestures for them to stand. “Here’s the plan then. We’re going to find that factory and look around. We still have a few hours before dark, but we need to pick up the pace. I think Michael really is out here, and he’s in trouble. So, we’re gonna find whoever took him and make them regret ever thinking they can mess with one of ours. Got it?”

Kyle and Tucker nod while Thomas whoops in agreement. “Let’s do this!”

After tucking the golden gloves into the pack, they all turn and make their way carefully into the thick trees. Taking up the back Andrew turns and looks at the devastated clearing one last time before turning back to follow the others.

_Hang on Mic. We’re coming._

* * *

It isn’t long before they finally stumble on the building that Kyle had told them about. The tall building stood tall and imposing in front of them, casting a long shadow that only helped to make it seem more menacing. Upon trying to walk the perimeter to scope out the best way to get inside they found that the path around it was mostly covered with thick vines and thorns making it too treacherous to even attempt to go around.

And so, the fraction of the Slush Defenders stands outside the front of the building, at a loss. The front door was sealed tight and the only way to get it open would be by force, a tactic that would surely give their presence away to anyone who might be inside Andrew had wiped some grime from a glass window near the door to try and peer in and get a better idea of what they’re facing. As he does the other three converse quietly behind him.

“Do you think we split up?” Kyle pipes up, looking at the other two.

Tucker looks uncertain. “Looks a little sketchy.” He adjusts the sword on his back to help ease the tension on his shoulders. “We might be setting ourselves up for a surprise attack.”

Thomas interjects, “Yeah but we could cover more ground and get out faster.” He rubs his arms and shivers, “This place is just giving me the worst kind of heebie-jeebies.”

Tucker looks thoughtful before asking. “What do you think ‘drew?” They all look at Andrew who had stayed silent up to this point. Lost in thought as he scrutinized the eerie building with an analytical eye.

He takes in the walls and pipes littered around the place randomly through the dirty window critically. Machinery stands frozen, forever forgotten to time, tall and imposing around the wide and dark factory. Catwalks hang from the ceiling ominously, leading to the offices and storage rooms on the second floor. He shakes his head. There were way too many places for someone to hide, too many places where any one of them could be jumped or whisked away. “Too risky. It’s better if we stick together and watch each other’s backs.”

Nodding to show that they understood they cautiously approach the doors leading into the building. It takes a few hard pushes and a power beam from Thomas, but they manage to push open the rusted doors and make their way into the building. Immediately, they all gag, the sickly sweet scent of rot hanging heavily in the air. It chokes their throats and forces them to take limited breaths to keep from throwing up. Eyes watering, they bear with it and begin walking through the dark room carefully. They eye their surroundings nervously as every creak and groan causes them to tense up. The broken machinery forms ominous shapes that cause the defenders to skirt them cautiously.

“What a great place for Mic to get dragged off to...” Thomas jokes half-heartedly.

“I’ll say.” Tucker adjusts the sword in his back again as he looks around. “It literally couldn’t be more terrible. And I swear the smell is going to knock me out.”

Andrew freezes when he hears an ominous creaking coming from directly over their heads, the others fall deathly silent at the sound. Snapping his head up he scans the ceiling overhead for any sign of movement.

“Please tell me I wasn’t the only one that heard that.” Thomas grits through clenched teeth, looking up to scan the ceiling as well. Andrew shakes his head as he looks back and forth overhead.

“I heard it too…” No sooner had the words left his mouth when a hissing sound suddenly strikes the air, setting all of their hair on end. Instantly on alert, the four turn their backs to each other and huddle close to watch all directions. “Kyle, throw up a light.”

The orange figure nods once, keeping his eyes on the roof he conjures a small green fireball. With a flick of his wrist he throws the ball of flame up, in the single moment, the ceiling is illuminated Andrew's eyes widen as he manages to catch wisps of smoke wafting from the cords supporting the catwalk. “Move!” Not one second later one side of the catwalk suddenly gives with a resounding snap. Almost in slow motion, the end starts swinging at them with deadly aim. Andrew moves first, shoving Kyle ahead of him the two topple to the side out of the path of the swinging walkway. He ducks as the catwalk swings past close enough he feels the winds rush past him.

Breathing hard he turns to look over his shoulder for his missing friends. “Tucker! Thomas!” he calls when he doesn’t spot them immediately.

“We’re here!” he hears Thomas call from the other side. He doesn’t have much more time to look before Kyle suddenly grabs his arm. Pulling him up the two back farther away from the unstable metal as it creaks ominously. Not two seconds later, the last two cords finally give and the whole structure falls to the ground with a slam. They stay where they are for a moment, waiting to see if anything else will fall but silence rings through the air. Cautiously, Andrew and Kyle make their way over to the fallen structure wary of anymore falling debris.

“Thomas? Tucker?” Andrew calls again.

“Over here.” Andrew looks over to see Thomas picking his way over to them. Tucker is using his shoulder as a crutch and rubbing his head with one hand as they make their way over to them.

Andrew eyes him carefully. “You okay?”

Tucker nods and winces. “T pushed me out of the way. I hit my head pretty hard when we fell back though.”

“Will you be alright?”

Tucker nods again before shaking his head to rid himself of any lingering vertigo. “S’not a big deal. I’ll walk it off, we have a bigger problem though. I lost the sword in the chaos; I have no idea where it went.”

Andrew just shakes his head. “That doesn’t matter right now.” He glances up at the ceiling and scans the area around them warily. “That thing didn’t fall all on its own, it was cut loose.” He gives them each a pointed look, “There's definitely something else here and it doesn’t seem too keen on us visiting. We need to find Mic and leave; we can come back with the rest of the guys some other time and find the sword then.”

No one argues, this place unnerved all of them and the constant feeling of being watched was setting them on edge. The sooner they got out, the better. Checking one last time that Tucker really was good, they turned and began treading carefully through the dark warehouse. This time they tread even more carefully, checking corners even more thoroughly and always keeping an eye on what may be behind or above them. The old building creaks and groans as they slowly made their way through. Every sound causes their already frayed nerves to strain. Dust flurries flit through the air unbidden as they trekked farther and farther into the wrecked edifice.

“I’m starting to think he isn’t even here,” Thomas grumbles, his patience at its limit, he sticks close to Tucker. Guilty over accidentally injuring him he prepares for anything that would even dare try to get near them.

“But the sword led us here,” Tucker says as he checks their left.

“Maybe it was wrong…”

“It hasn’t been wrong so far.” Kyle points out.

“If he is here, he better be chained up or something. I swear he better not just be meditating in here somewhere.”

Andrew blocks out the squabbling group. Instead, he continues to scan their surroundings carefully, constantly on guard for another potential attack. He walks forward a few paces ahead of the group but stops when he spots something. Holding up his hand for silence the others fall into quiet immediately. Carefully stepping into what could only be the very center of the building, Andrew looks up. A skylight slits through the concrete opening up to show a bright blue sky beyond the dirty glass.

“Andrew.” Dropping his gaze from the roof Andrew turns to look at Kyle but he isn’t looking at him, instead, he’s looking just past him. Turning back, he freezes when he sees what captured the fire user’s attention. A figure sits with his back to them, dirty gold armor gleaming at them as he sits just out of the sunlight.

Pulled out of his shock, Andrew takes a tentative step forward. “Micheal…?”


	4. Whats a little fight between Friends?

The rigid figure doesn’t react to his name, doesn’t even twitch. An uneasy feeling settles at the bottom of Andrew's stomach at the unnatural stillness, it sits there, heavy, as he glances around, still wary of what may be lurking about.

“Michael!” He calls again, more urgently. Still no answer from their silent friend. It's unsettling, the way he doesn’t even react. He’s not the only one unnerved by the situation, a quick glance at Tucker to his left shows him eyeing the still figure with a guarded expression. 

“Dude, where have you been!?” Andrew jumps at the sudden outburst and turns to see Thomas storming forward, completely ignoring his calls to stop. The black figure was affronted when they stumbled upon their missing friend, prepared for the worst, he had been more than shocked to find him just sitting here, free to go whenever he wanted. His ire causes him to completely miss the obvious signs, the gold figures unnatural stillness and prolonged silence flies completely over his head as irritation takes over. “You disappear off the map for two weeks and we all worry ourselves sick thinking maybe you got killed out here.” At this point, Thomas was directly behind Michael's hunched form. “And when we do find you, you’re just sitting here! What the hell have you been doing?!” Even then, Michael doesn’t move, even when Thomas is directly behind him, which only helps to increase his annoyance further. When he still doesn’t answer, or even acknowledge him, the black figure scowls. “Hey!” he calls, sharp and loud, it bounces around the silent room.

The calls fading echoes bounce around the room eerily causing the other three to glance around nervously. They snap back to look at their two friends when they hear metal grinding against metal. Michael is shakily pushing himself onto his feet, but he does not turn around to face them. He stands there, swaying slightly back and forth, as if he was on the edge of collapsing on his feet. His unsteady stature causes Thomas to hesitate. “Michael…?” he calls softly, all irritation gone, as he reaches out a hand to steady his trembling friend.

Fast as lightening the gold figure turns on him causing the black figure to stumble. Just as quick a white blob intercepts causing sparks to fly as Tucker materializes between the two, just barely managing to hold off the long red blade aiming for Thomas’ throat. With a grunt, Tucker's arms begin to shake with the exertion of holding the blade back as his own twin daggers screech in protest against each other. “Andrew!” he grits.

“On it!” Andrew darts forward and throws himself into a slide. Pushing up with as much force he can muster without hurting the target he forcibly kicks out at Michael's torso, careful to avoid his ribs he aims for the soft underbelly instead, the brunt of which was taken in by his golden armor.

The force of the kick sends the golden figure reeling, causing him to lose his grip on the long elastic sword as he is thrown bodily backward to land in a heap. The weapons elasticity causes it to arc upwards, long and dangerous, as it swipes devastatingly through the ceiling before it shrinks back to its original size. They quickly lose sight of it as glass and large chunks of cement begin raining down around their heads.

Thomas snaps out if his shock long enough to grab the other two and yank them out of the way as large chunks of stone begin to rain down from the cut. With a shout, he throws the other two ahead before diving after them to escape the cascading debris. They land in heap on the other side and scramble away to avoid the glass and rocks falling from the sky. Kyle hesitates “What about-“

Andrew cuts him off, “My kick should have sent him far enough out of the way-” he chokes on the last word suddenly. Overhead, the elastic sword twirls gracefully in a downward trajectory, straight towards Michael's prone form. With a shout he darts forward, behind him he hears the other defenders give cries of surprise as well, but he ignores them. His only focus is on reaching the motionless figure, but even as he rapidly zips around the loose debris and dodges the last bits of falling rocks he knows he won’t make it in time. He was too far away, too slow, and too late.

Suddenly he feels his feet being knocked out from under him and, with a yelp, he loses his footing on the glass littered ground and comes crashing down with a hiss. Unforgiving glass digs into his arms, but he ignores it; already pushing himself up. He disregards the shards cutting into his palms and knees as he slips on fragments of glass and blood to try and get moving again, but he knew he wouldn’t make it in time, and neither would the others.

He curses himself for kicking Michael so far, maybe if he had tackled him instead this wouldn’t be happening, but he was an idiot and jumped right to his signature move. With wide eyes, he tracks the sword until the very last moment where he flinches and ducks his head between his arms. He hears the sword bury itself deep in the concrete, but he can’t look, can’t bear the thought that he may have accidentally killed his friend.

He stays there, angry and distraught, and listens to the sounds of the others making their way over to him. He waits for their horrified cries to confirm what he already knows with a constricted throat.

“Oh, thank God.” At Thomas’ exclamation, he opens his eyes. The three had stopped next to him, afraid to get any closer, and Kyle grabs his arm to pull him off the ground. Steeling his nerves, Andrew looks over and instantly sags in relief causing Kyle to stiffen in surprise when he has to support most of his weight.

He was okay, no more than two inches away from his head the dark red sword had buried itself halfway into the concrete. Thomas takes a few hesitant steps toward him, but Tucker quickly stops him by blocking his path.

“What if he’s hurt?”

“He almost took your head off!” Tucker is shaking, all adrenaline, as he turns his head to stare hard at the prone figure. “Something is clearly wrong with him. We need to keep our distance.”

“But-” Thomas stops, eyes wide as he looks beyond Tucker's shoulder. Michael was getting up again. Unsteady and loose, he uses the sword for support to push himself into a shaky stand. More than once it seemed as if he would topple over completely as he painstakingly stands, and the Defenders have to hold themselves back from rushing over. Once he’s standing, he looks up causing the four to suck in horrified breaths, his eyes were a deep red, veins slunk across his sclera like thick rivers as he studied them, head tilted to the side almost questioningly

“God, Michael,” Kyle says, dismay lacing his tone as he takes in the damaged eyes. “What happened?”

“He’s been playing. But he’s so, so broken now…” Something hisses from behind them sending chills up their spines. Instantly on alert, Kyle, Thomas, and Tucker whip around to look behind them, only Andrew keeps his eyes trained on Michael.

“It didn’t take long…” this time the voice creeps from their left, it whistles like wind through a shutter as it slithers around them. They move to face that direction, tense as they try to locate the source of the voice.

“Who’s there!?” Thomas snaps. He indicates their unsteady friend. “Did you do this!?”

“Oh, yesss.” The voice is farther away now, this time from in front of them, it emanates from above where the gold figure is standing but as they watch they see a purple ooze starts to rain down around him. Soon, the creature looms over Michael, still dripping poison.

“I am Bog.” It jeers at them gleefully.

From where they stand, they hear a hissing noise, a closer look shows bits of steam rising from Michaels armor ominously. The sound sets their teeth on edge, creeping uncomfortably up their spines, “What are you doing!?” Andrew shouts through gritted teeth. It’s taking everything in him not to rush over, they still don’t know what they’re dealing with. The only thing keeping them rooted to the spot is fear at what could happen to their defenseless friend, they can’t attack without endangering Michal and it _knows _that.__

“Maybe I don’t need this puppet anymore?” The creature continues as if it hadn’t heard him. It casually drapes around GG’s shoulders and a faint sizzling can be heard. “He’s not fun anymore, not for a while anyway.” It tightens its grip on Michael's throat slightly but the gray figure doesn’t even flinch from the contact, not even as smoke wafts up to taint the air. “Maybe I should just get rid of him?”

“STOP!” Thomas is shaking, fists clenched hard at his side. At the outburst, the creature's face splits into a large and unsettling smile. All four are tense, but even still, they don’t rush forward, not with the monster’s arms so close to Michael's throat. “What do you want?!”

The monster's smile falls, and it tilts its head as if considering the question. After a moment, its face cracks into another impossibly wide and sinister grin. “I just want to have fun!” Without warning it suddenly completely consumes Michael, toppling him so they can’t see anything except a purple pulsing mass of ooze.

“Fuck!” Andrew doesn’t know who yelled, it could have come from him all for all he knew, but they all react together, without thinking they throw themselves forward, minds blank with panic. Thomas gets there first and, without thinking, thrusts his hands into the mound of goop, he flinches only slightly as a thousand pins and needles cut through his hands but ignores it. He thrusts his arms in deeper and quickly locates his target. “I’ve got him!” No sooner have the words leave his mouth than the ooze suddenly explodes out, throwing Thomas back into the others. Andrew catches the brunt of his weight and Kyle helps to keep them both from toppling back, but Tucker skirts around the group to throw himself at Michael, to try and separate the two, but the creature intercepts him and whips him hard to the side.

He hits the side of a large vat with a loud bang before sliding to land down to on his feet. He doesn’t stay standing long as he crouches down to try and get the breath that was thrown out of him from the impact. The world vibrates around him, but he shakes off the dizziness and pushes himself up, he summons the twin daggers and prepares to try again. Bog turns his attention on him, to gloat, but doesn’t even have time to open his mouth as Thomas throws himself fully at the monster, slamming one fist onto its jaw. Simultaneously, Andrew throws himself at Michael and pushes him out of the poisonous tendrils still wrapped around him.

Throwing Thomas off with a roar, Bog attempts to reclaim his stolen puppet only to be intercepted by Tucker. Throwing his bandana up. Tucker pushes him back, swiping with deadly and dangerous accuracy. “I don’t think so!” he snarls. “You aren’t ever getting near him again!”

“That’s right!” Thomas jumps over to stand next to the white figure. “We’re gonna kick your fucking teeth in!”

Bog actually laughs. The sound is low and high at the same, an amalgamation of sounds that just didn’t sound right. It unsettles the two the longer he cackles as if there was a joke only he knew the punchline to. “What so funny!?” Thomas snaps thoroughly fed up.

The creature tilts its head innocently. “You say I won’t get near him? He’s still a part of me, he’s my toy!”

At the same time Thomas hears a shout from behind him, he barely has time to turn before he’s suddenly pushed hard to the left. “Move!” Tucker shouts. The white figure had shoved him out of the way just as the monster had thrown itself at them, slamming heavy limbs down that cracks the cement underneath. “Get ready to fight!” Tucker shoots at him as the creature reassembles in front of them, grinning maniacally.

* * *

“Michael!” Andrew is kneeling over the golden figure as he lays limply on the ground, beside him Kyle is working on brushing the leftover strands of goop from the dull armor. They had pulled off the damaged helmet as soon as they could, it was far too broken to be saved as it had taken the brunt of the acid rain from the monster earlier, and they couldn’t risk it eating completely through to burn Michael's head. Even now, they can hear the faint sizzling as it eats through the gold to destroy the leather underneath. “Wake up!” he shakes the figure, only slightly, afraid of jostling any hidden injuries, but still, he doesn’t stir. His face is completely slack, and his eyes stare unblinkingly up at the ceiling, the thick purple veins still cover the majority of his sclera like poisonous rivers. When he still doesn’t move, Andrew leans back to rest on his knees. He shares a dismayed look with Kyle who shrugs, at a loss. Behind them, he hears Thomas and Tucker dealing with the monster, but he knows they won’t be able to hold him off forever.

“What do we-” suddenly Michael jolts, his back arcs completely off the ground before falling back limply. The sudden movement causes both Kyle and Andrew to start in surprise, but they recover quickly, scrambling closer they lean over their fallen friend, relief bubbling in their stomachs. He was waking up! Their relief is quickly squashed through when they get a closer look. Nothing had changed, aside from the jerky movements he was still lifeless, no recognition was in his eyes. The gray figure jerks again, this time his legs fold underneath him, as if he were trying to get up, before falling limply back down. His whole body is shuddering, and his arms and legs twitch randomly. Something was so clearly wrong with him, it scared them, and pushed any common sense out. Andrew leans forward to help their quaking friend sit up, looping an arm around his back he gently angles him up. “Michael!? What is it!? Are you okay!?”

The question had barely passed his lips when suddenly the shaky figure pushes Andrew away roughly. He tumbles back, surprised, when Michael draws his weapon. Before he can draw another breath a flash of white-hot agony runs up Andrew's chest, like lightning. A long gash manifests across his torso, splitting the skin easily from his shoulder to his hip. With a sharp cry, he rolls back, clutching his chest as blood leaks from between his hands in slow rivers, pins and needles begin working its way around his torso as the shock from the attack sets in. He looks up at his friend who now towered over him menacingly, the sword hefted up high.

The gold figure raises his deadly weapon over his head, still slick on one side with Andrew's blood, aiming to skewer him completely and smiles, its wide and unsettling. “Hello~” he purrs, an amalgamation of the gray figures warm voice and the monsters sickly sweet one, before attempting to swing.

He’s only stopped by Kyle, who links his arms around Michaels to stop him from completing the blow. “Mic!? What are you doing!?” he doesn’t receive an answer, instead, Michael allows the hilt of the blade to twist in his palm and attempts to impale Kyle by jamming the weapon behind him. With a yelp Kyle releases him and just barely escapes with a nick to his hip, Michael takes a few more wild swings at him, but Kyle evades him nimbly. Taking the dirty cape still hanging from Michael's neck he yanks it hard to throw the gold figure off balance before backtracking to Andrew, who at this point had pushed himself up to rest shakily on his knees.

“What did that thing do to him?” He breathes, kneeling next to his leader. “What do we do!?”

“Somethings wrong.” Andrew grunts as he pushes himself into a shaky stand, Kyle allows him to lean on his shoulder for support as they scrutinize the gold figure. He had pushed himself erratically to his feet once again and was turning around. Slowly, he turns to face them, eyes still impossibly wide with a smile to match. “He smiled at me. Just like that thing.” Kyle connects the pieces easily, it wasn’t hard, not when the evidence was literally punching you in the face.

“That means-”

Michael cuts him off as he begins to laugh, low and menacing, hefting the sword up to rest on one shoulder. Then he speaks, except it wasn’t his voice, not quite. “My puppet,” he rasps, “So damaged, but maybe I can still have _some_ fun..."

Anger boils in Andrew stomach and he opens his mouth to snarl a retort, but Kyle beats him to it. “He isn’t your fucking toy to just throw around!” The orange figure is shaking with barely contained rage, smoke erupts from his clenched fists as he tries and fails to hold back his anger, as he takes an angry step forward. “You better get out of him right fucking now or so help me-”

“What?” not-Michael mocks. “Will you kill me?” his smile stretched further, and he opens his arms wide as if welcoming an attack. “Come on then, I want to see you do it.”

Kyle snarls, Andrew can feel waves of heat coming off of him as he struggles to contain his flames. He lays a hand on his shoulder to try and calm the orange figure. “We don’t need to attack him to get to you.” Andrew says calmly. “I’ll bet all we have to do is kill the real you to get him back.”

Not-Michael, Bog it had called itself, seems to consider this, placing a hand on his cheek he rolls his eyes back slightly to look at the ceiling in thought. It was disturbing, the monster didn’t seem to know the limits of a regular person’s body, so everything was warped and stretched to their limits. They could see every vein in their friend’s eyes as they pulsed, on the verge of bursting, and his chapped lips had cracked in several places from being stretched too far, dotting his teeth with blood. “You could fight me. With all four of you, you could probably even beat me too…” It suddenly looks at them again, smile returning full force. “But that isn’t any fun! So no! I want to fight you like this!”

“You don’t have a choice you freak!” Kyle snaps.

The creature wearing Michaels face puckers its lips as if its feelings were hurt, it wasn’t a pretty sight. “No need for name-calling friend.” It ignores Kyles retort and keeps going, spreading Michael's arms to indicate the building. “You came into my home and attacked me. I deserve compensation.”

“You took our friend; tortured him for weeks and tried to kill us. You don’t deserve anything.” Andrew bites back.

“He was in my territory.” He shrugs casually, as if they were discussing what to have for lunch and sighs. “If you don’t want to play with me in this body, it’s okay. We can all play together. You four against my real body but I’ll have to put away this one first.”

Neither says anything, anxiety swirls in their stomachs as they wait for the creature's next move. Tension building as it rubs Michael's chin thoughtfully, as if considering its next action.

“But I can’t just leave my toy lying around, it’s so much work controlling him and keeping him asleep.” He thinks for another long moment, leaving them in suspense, “Hm, I guess there’s no choice then.” Before either can say anything, the creature flips the red blade around and slides it ever so slowly over Michaels neck, blood spurts from the cut flesh and runs in thick rivulets down the blade and down his neck, sliding into his gold armor.

“Stop!” The cry nearly tears Andrew's throat, fear and desperation slam through him as they watch, horrified, at the blood pouring from the wound. “What are you doing?!”

The creature smiles innocently, it almost pulls it off. “There’s no use for a broken toy. He doesn’t even fight me anymore, it’s so boring. If you won’t play with him, then there’s no reason to keep him around.” He digs the sword in a little deeper, allowing more blood to rush out. “Isn’t that what you wanted? To fight me together?”

“No!” Andrew wracks his brain for a plan, any way to get Michael away from the thing that had been tormenting him for weeks, but nothing comes to mind. All he can think about is the gash along Michael's neck, blood oozes freely staining the gold armor and ground.

“'drew?” He's pulled out of his thoughts by Kyle, the orange figure is giving him a hard stare, layers of anger and pleading reflect back at him from the emerald green eyes. His brow is pulled together as he also tries to figure out a plan. Andrew shakes his head, he had nothing. They had effectively been backed into a corner.

At once, the creature stops and grins. “Does this mean you’ll play?”

Andrew hesitates, only for a moment, before nodding once. He didn’t want to fight, Michael was already so badly hurt, but anything was better than the alternative. He turns to Kyle, the orange figure is tense, glaring through Michael at the creature controlling him. “We have to do this.”

“I know” he replies lowly, smoke wafting from his hands and feet.

“Great! Let’s get started then!” All at once, it attacks. Throwing a swing at them with the sword, they’re forced to separate as the swing goes between them to hit the ground, causing sparks to fly from the contact. Andrew only has time for one more shout before they start.

“Try not to hurt him!” and then all hell breaks loose.

* * *

Thomas pants as he narrowly avoids another slash from the creature’s tendrils, it hits a cement wall instead and begins sizzling and steaming. “Tuck! Any ideas?” they had been at it for a while now and so far, they hadn’t made any progress. Not unless you counted barely surviving as progress.

Tucker ducks as the creature throws globs of poison at him and begins advancing to push him into a corner, kicking off of the wall he’d been pushed into, he arcs gracefully over its head and darts backwards to stand beside Thomas. He’s also out of breath, the constant dodging was costing them precious energy, they needed to end this soon before this thing got the upper hand and actually managed to deal serious damage. Up till this point, all they’d been dealt was minor burns and scratches, but as they continued to slow each blow was getting closer to hitting them. It seemed impossible though; it moved fluidly with almost no pattern; making it nearly impossible to guess what it would do next. Instead the two focus on landing any hit they can while simultaneously dodging the acid whips it throws at them.

Behind them, they hear the sounds of Andrew and Kyle dealing with Michael, and with no time to ask what was happening or why Michael was attacking them, they had thrown themselves into their own fight, hoping to end it soon so they could help contain their sick friend. “No!” Tucker racks his brain for anything that might help them. Already the creature was turning on them, gearing up for the next attack. All at once, it throws itself at them again, falling over itself and losing its shape before reforming directly in front of them, ready to grab them.

Thomas releases a power beam at the monster as soon as it reforms, it was an act of desperation to give them more time, even seconds could mean the difference between winning and losing in this fight. It seems to work as its thrown back to slap wetly against the cement wall it had attempted to corner Tucker in, giving them time to breathe a sigh of relief. They don’t stay that way for long, as the smoke clears, they see it was still standing. Thomas gags slightly as they make out the skull of the monster through the shredded layers of ooze. It grins. “You can do that too?” it grates through ruined flesh.

That’s the only warning they get before it reforms again, flesh sewing up to cover its skull, they hardly blink before a pentagram is drawn in front of the creature and a beam of pure energy is thrown at them.

With a shout, Thomas and Tucker split. Allowing the beam to pass between them as the heat from it works to steal the breath from their lungs, they’re only allowed a brief reprieve when suddenly Bog attacks again. Throwing out gobs of his congealed blood he throws them at Thomas before turning on Tucker.

“Thomas!” Tucker backtracks trying to get some distance between him and the oncoming beast. “It’s trying to separate us!” he doesn’t hear a reply, the black and blue figure is too busy trying to defend himself against the new enemies. They swarmed the black figure, tiny but no less deadly, as he struggles to fend for himself as the small creatures try to overwhelm him. Gritting his teeth, Tucker comes to a stop, readies his daggers, and glares up at the quickly approaching monster. 

Bog wastes no time, immediately he throws blow after blow at him. Tucker does his best, allowing each hit to bounce off of his daggers but he quickly realizes he’s being pushed back. Each blow sends him farther into a corner as the hits vibrate up his arms forcing him to stumble to keep his feet under him. He was quickly running out of room and would be at the mercy of the creature.

 _Well,_ he thinks, _can’t let that happen._

Thinking fast he takes a chance and folds his knees underneath him, allowing the hits to slam into the wall overhead with resounding cracks, he leverages himself quickly against the wall and kicks as hard as he can. The creature, anticipating his move, tries to grab him, but is slightly too slow asTucker glides between its legs, evading the deadly tendrils aiming for him by a hair.

Twisting on his hands he throws himself up to skid to a stop but doesn’t have time to catch his breath as the monster was almost immediately on top of him again. He throws himself back to keep it from crushing him and flips away but it just follows him, falling over itself like a viperous stream, he finds himself having to constantly sprint to avoid being caught. Suddenly and without warning, Tucker feels himself being tripped, maybe it was some loose debris from Michael's sword or maybe the monster managed to get the upper hand, but Tucker doesn’t think too long on what caused it. Falling hard he has seconds before he’s consumed, he rolls just as the purple ooze slams down where he had been. Flying back, he puts as much distance between them as possible. He had to end this, but how? He looks at the twin daggers, would a direct attack work? They had seen it had a skeleton, as absurd as it seemed with its fluid movements. Does that mean it had a heart? Lungs? Would it even kill it? He looks up to glare up at the figure as it turned to face him, grin never falling.

He had to try.

Clearing his mind of any doubts, he throws himself bodily at the large purple figure. He digs his daggers deep into its chest, and freezes. He looks up and finds himself eye to eye with his spine-chilling opponent, seemingly unaffected and amused by his attempt. Yanking hard he just manages to pull his dagger free but is too slow to slip away, a deadly mistake. Without a moment of hesitation, Bog rears back and slams as much force as he can into his chest. Several cracks are heard as his ribs crumple like aluminum foil under the creature's blow.

For the second time, Bog hurls Tucker across the room, whipping him in the chest the white figure arcs through the air, unable to right himself or slow his momentum he braces for the impact. With a crunch, he hits the wall on the far side of the room before sliding down to fall. This time, however, he doesn’t get up, above him blood smears the area where his head had connected with the unforgiving granite.

“Tucker!” panic laces Thomas’ voice when the white figure doesn’t stir, his anger flares rapidly. Gritting his teeth, he jumps back to give himself room before unleashing his power beam at them. He holds it for as long as he can, twisting around to sweep the tiny army out. They shriek loudly before crumpling to dust, Thomas doesn’t even wait for the smoke to clear before darting over them, he was almost there, arm outstretched, when Bog fills his vision, completely blocking his path. Not even bothering to stop he pulls back a fist, he would blast straight through this thing if he had to. “Move!” he bellows. The creature allows the punch to connect only recoiling slightly from the blow before growing to loom over him threateningly. Thomas doesn’t even have time to draw his next breath before Bog slams down on him hard. He hits the cement with a crack, but he doesn’t stop, already he’s pushing himself off the cold ground, but the creature has other plans. His vision is suddenly filled with rows of teeth. He hurls himself back and, without thinking, throws up his arm to block the attack.

White-hot agony shoots up his arm and his breath is stolen from him as he’s driven to his knees. It fucking bit him!? The purple demon latched onto Thomas’ forearm and was now looming over him menacingly, somehow still smiling wide. Bits of the creature ooze and drip bits of cold fire all over his face, his chest, everywhere. “Agh! Get Off!” he tries to snatch his arm back, but the creature pushes him down, lacing one acid hand around his arm, he holds him still. “Stop!” desperation courses through him as his vision dims and flickers through the pain. Was it _trying_ to tear his arm off? His breath hitches as his vision darkens further. He tries to look around, to call for help, but he knows no one can come, with Tucker incapacitated and Andrew and Kyle still busy with Michael. He yanks his arm again, but the monster just bites harder, he hears the bone in his arm creak, as if it were on the verge of snapping. Thomas rapidly blinks to chase the stars that were dancing across his vision away, but it was no use, his vision was rapidly failing him. Just as it feels as if he’ll go mad from the pain two twin daggers pierce the creature’s neck in an X, instantly wiping the grin off the monster’s face.

“Get the fuck off of him!” Tucker pulls the daggers at a sharper angle before slicing through the monster’s neck, completely severing its head. Flipping expertly over the now decapitated body Tucker stumbles only slightly before he swoops down to yank Thomas out of the deadly ropes. Dragging him back until he felt they were a safe distance away, he kneels down. “Are you okay?!” his eyes roam over the various burns covering his face and body.

“Just peachy…” Thomas groans. Leaning heavily on his friend, he looks over at the slowly melting figure. “D’ya think that worked?” Suddenly a large tendril whips them both, hitting them both hard in the chest, they’re thrown clear across the room and land in a heap on the other side.

“No…” the white figure rasps painfully.

* * *

Andrew gasps as he swerves around a swing from the long blade. The maneuver had pulled sharply at the gash running across his torso, causing stars to briefly erupt in his vision. The wound still wept freely dotting the ground with scarlet liquid as he sloppily ambles around each attack, trying to find an opening. The blood had tapered off to a slow trickle by now, but he had still lost a fair amount, even now he feels the slight dizziness accompanied with blood loss, but he impatiently shakes the vertigo off. Kyle wasn’t faring any better, twice now, he had gotten close enough to grab Michael, but he was quickly outmatched. The creature had succeeded in landing several blows on Kyle, gifting him a black eye and split lip for his struggles. The orange figure was still holding back, he couldn’t use his flames, didn’t even let the thought cross his mind, no matter how enraged he was at the creature under the surface he wouldn’t mark his friend. Kyle jumps back as Michael once again takes a wild swing at him, skipping just out of range he feels the wind from the blade whip past dangerously. Deciding he was to close and getting nowhere anyways he darts back and comes to stand next to his leader.

He spits a bloody gob to the side as he leans onto his knees to catch his breath. He’s quickly tiring, holding back is costing him, it wouldn’t be long until Michael actually managed to land a solid hit with his weapon. “Any ideas?”

Andrew wipes the sweat from his eyes before standing straight, he winces as the motion pulls at the gash slightly, causing Kyle to glance at him in concern. The orange figure bites his lip as he takes in the long gash. “Maybe you should sit this out…he already got you pretty good and the last thing we want is to have to carry back our leader’s corpse from a rescue mission.”

Andrew shakes off the concern, he wasn’t backing out of this fight to leave Kyle alone. They may have qualms about attacking fully but the creature didn’t, using their friend as a shield it used all of its power to come at them. Every hit and kick aims to break them and every swing from the sword aims to cut them down. They wouldn’t last much longer like this without a reprieve, or without help. “We just have to keep at it till we get lucky. Or until Tucker and Thomas beat that things body.” It wasn’t much of a plan, luck was never something he relied on, especially when you hold the lives of 28 other people in your hands, but there wasn’t much else they could do. Not with 85 percent of the team in Aegis town with no idea what was happening just a few miles away. Whether they liked it or not, they were on their own with only each other to rely on. “Just keep at it for as long as you can.”

The orange figure still looks unconvinced but doesn’t have time to reply as the creature decides they’re taking too long to come to him. He moves faster than either anticipated, almost like a golden blur, as he aims a punch into Andrew's stomach. It lands solidly and knocks him back as all of the air is sucked out of him from the blow. The blue figure stumbles back but saves himself from falling and instead crouches down to try and ease the stolen oxygen back into his lungs as black stars dance across his vision and he blinks rapidly to clear them away. As he recovers Michael begins slashing wildly at Kyle who does his best to defend himself. Moving side to side he’s pushed farther and farther back leaving Andrew crouching painfully alone as Kyle takes the brunt of the creature's attention.

 _He’s trying to separate us,_ Andrew's blood depleted brain supplies hazily, _He’s trying to kill him first._

“Kyle get away from-” the warning dies on Andrew's lips as the orange figure trips, ankle rolling painfully on a piece of loose debris from the ceiling, he falls back with a thud. Already the monster has his sword up, aiming to mortally wound the fallen figure. Panic laces through Andrew and he shoves himself to a standing position to run towards them. 

"No!"

Kyle tries to get away, he twists to one side to avoid the blow, but the creature anticipates this. Kicking him hard in the chest he places one foot down and pushes all of his weight down to hold his opponent still. Smiling madly, he holds the sword up, ready to spear him, he takes a moment to glance over his shoulder and smirk at Andrew. The figure's eyes widen in horror at the maniacal glee in its eyes and he pushes his failing body faster, willing it to move, move, _move._

Turning back to his victim he laughs. “Bye-bye~” he sings before he slams it down, he closes his eyes before impact, reveling in the feeling of flesh being sliced, he feels blood, warm and sticky on his foot, as it squirts freely from the wound. The figure under him grunts in pain, probably already coming to the realization he was dying. Letting loose another one of his mad smiles he looks down to admire his work. Instantly his smile drops, the figure isn’t dead. He’s holding the sword up by the blade, it cuts deeply into his hands as he struggles to keep it away from his chest. Inch by inch it slides closer to its mark, he laughs, “A slow death it is then!”

This is all Bog can say before Andrew tackles him, throwing him clear over Kyle the two roll a few times before coming to a stop.

_Ah right, the blue one._

Andrew attempts to reach for the sword but is swiftly kicked away. Michael rolls to the side and jumps to his feet as Andrew stumbles away, clutching his chest as blood rushes from the wound. Anger shines bright and vivid in his eyes as he takes in the gold figure in front of him.

“Coward!” he hisses. “Can’t take us on together? It’s not enough you’re using him as a shield, you have to separate and kill us one at a time too? I thought you wanted to fight us together!”

Bog revels in the anger, enjoying the raging, conflicted emotions he created. “It's so much more fun this way though.” He coos, placing a palm affectionally on his cheek. “To kill you one at a time, making the others witness as I cut down one of their own…” He shudders in pleasure as he closes his eyes imagining the gory imagery. “It would be fantastic. I knew this puppet would be fun. His mind tried so hard to conceal you. He fought and fought, so afraid to show who he cared for. But it didn’t matter, he broke soon enough.” He smiles wider causing his to lips crack and his eyes widen madly as he imagines something horrific. “Maybe I should go for that cute little kid next? I would love to hear his screams.”

Biles rises in Andrew's throat at the thought of the little gray figure being anywhere near this thing. “You aren’t going to touch him!” he snarls.

He smiles wider. “Will you stop me?” he throws his head back and laughs. “ _Can_ you stop me?”

The blow comes out of nowhere, a feeling like being struck by a metal bat pulses from his cheek as he’s thrown roughly backwards. Shock courses through him and it takes him a moment to recover enough to look up at the blue figure. Andrew doesn’t give him time to recover, he grabs him harshly by the ratty cape around his neck. He hefts Michael up, toes barely scraping the ground as he brings him inches from his own face, shoulders shaking in rage. “We will!” he spits he brings back another fist but doesn’t throw it, instead he lets it hang there, just barely holding back. “We will stop you! We’ll drag you out of him bit by bit if we have to!”

Bog had recovered from his shock at this point and chuckles lowly, it starts small but soon it develops into full-blown giggling. Andrew shakes him harshly. “What do you think you’re laughing at?” 

Bogs breath whistles through his constricted windpipe as he continues his fit, it's only after a moment that he’s able to answer. Voice raspy he speaks. “What power do you have here?” he crows. “You can’t even stomach the idea of attacking this idiot’s body! Even when I maim and try to kill you, you still hold back!” Bog smiles wide, staring directly into Andrew's eyes as he continues. “I’m going to kill all of you here! I'll completely decimate your bodies and spill your guts, your blood will paint my walls.” A mad gleam enters his eyes at the thought. “Maybe I’ll even let him have control again? Just to see what he did.” he shivers. “His screams would be delicious.”

Andrew drops him, revolted, and moves to get away but Bog doesn’t let him get far. He knocks his feet out from under him with one swift sweep and pounces. Straddling the blue figure, he pins his arms and continues gleefully, face inches from Andrews as he lets blood drip freely onto his captives’ face from his various wounds. “Then, when he’s truly mad, I’ll go to the town and get the rest.”

“You can’t beat them!” Andrew tries to buck him off to no avail, nausea rolls through him at the monster’s threats. “They’re stronger than you!”

“Maybe, but it will be delectable making them kill him.” He tightens his grip on Andrew's arms, painfully digging unforgiving nails into his skin. “And then when they come to look for you and the others. I’ll be here, waiting to get them too, it will be too easy.” He breaths delightfully. “Especially when they see what’s left.” Andrew gags and tries to turn away. His obvious discomfort causes the creature to laugh again. “Maybe I’ll leave you for last, make you watch. Let you live long enough to see this fool go mad.”

“Hey!” all at once the weight on Andrew's chest is gone and he sucks in a breath he didn’t know he needed, looking up he sees Kyle standing over him breathing hard, a long piece of wood is clenched in his hands as he shivers, adrenaline rushing through him. Dropping his weapon Kyle grabs Andrew and begins pulling him back. “C’mon, we need some room!”

Andrew manages to stumble to his feet, and they make it a few feet but freeze when they hear a raspy laugh from behind them. Andrew whips around but Kyle still pulls him, anxious to put as much distance between them and the creature as possible. He only stops when Andrew digs his feet into the ground, but he doesn’t turn around, too distressed to see the damage he did to Michael. They’re about 20 feet away but they can hear everything it says clearly.

“I didn’t think you had it in you.” he purrs. He swishes something in his mouth for a moment before spitting out a bloody mass. He smiles and blood coats his teeth. “But I saw you close your eyes~” he sings. Just as quickly as his mirth appeared it slips. Suddenly he’s serious, a frown pulls at his lips and he eyes them seriously. “This isn’t fun anymore.” He whines. “All four of you just keep interfering right before I can finish one of you off. It's not fair.” Andrew doesn’t want to think about what that means for Thomas and Tucker, of whom they hadn’t seen since the beginning of the fight. “So, I think I’ll end the game now. I’m just going to kill you all at once.” Suddenly, he lifts the red sword and swings.

Andrew doesn’t have time to yell a warning, let alone move, when Michael swings. The weapon expands like taffy and slams into them hard. Andrew catches it in the chest and Kyle is slammed in the back as all the wind is thrown out of them. They go sailing through the air, time seems to slow as they’re thrown hard across the room before they hit the ground, bouncing a few times they come to a slide next to Thomas and Tucker. Maybe some would call that luck, Andrew would call it intentional.

“Looks like you guys aren’t having any luck either.” Thomas wheezes as he holds himself up on trembling arms. Andrew’s eyes widen as he takes in their various injuries, both look as if they had been put through the wringer, likewise, they take in his and Kyles wounds silently, despair shining in their eyes.

He already knows what they’re thinking. “That thing is controlling him.” He spits some dirt from his mouth before looking over his shoulder, he sees Michael still standing on the other side of the room, not moving, just watching. “We can’t get close enough to land any hits and if we don’t fight it’ll kill him.” He was lying; if they decided to full out, no holding back, then they could easily take him down. But they couldn’t, even though he’d attacked and injured them, it wasn’t really him. Their friend was still in there, they just had to drag it out of him. Only twice, one for Andrew and one for Kyle, did they hit for real and both times had been acts of rage and desperation. They were at their limits, both mentally and physically, and wouldn’t last much longer like this.

Tucker pushes himself up carefully and sucks in a painfully shallow breath causing the other three to give him looks of concern. He probes his chest gently and winces, several ribs were definitely cracked. “What now?” he rasps. “Cause we aren’t having any luck with the big guy.”

Kyle answers, glaring up at the damaged ceiling. “Same. This guy is really pissing me off.”

“That’s too bad.” A voice flits over them. Instantly they push themselves up, but they don’t have the chance to stand. Again, the rubber sword hits them, effectively slamming them into the far wall, and pins them in place. “I thought we were really having fun there.”

They struggle for a moment to try and dislodge the large metal band, but the tip had buried itself into the wall. They had been shoved onto a corner, a large wall sits to their right and an abandoned metal vat sits to their left. They were trapped with their only way out being through the monster. Not a good situation to be in.

Bog sniffs slightly, as if miffed and turns his glare onto Michael. “He was supposed to kill you…” his ire only lasts a moment before his smile returns full force, he places an almost affectionate hand on the gray figures cheek, steam wafts up from the contact but the figure doesn’t flinch. “I guess there’s still a little bit left to _break_.” 

The pinned figures shout in objection, or insults in Thomas’ case, at the action. It succeeds in getting Bog's attention and he turns his wide smile back to face the helpless group. “What’s wrong?” he asks mockingly. He lets the hand linger for a bit longer, just to prove a point, before lowering to turn on them completely. “It’s not like you’ll be around much longer to care anyway.”

The threat lingers in the air, but it doesn’t deter any of them from shooting back their own threats.

“Just wait till we get free!” growls Thomas. He had been caught in an awkward position when they had been pinned; one arm was trapped by the sword, but he used the other to throw a rude gesture at Bog. “We’re gonna squash you like a bug!”

Bog sways in mock offense before laughing loudly, the sound sets their teeth on edge as it bounces around their little alley, echoing in their heads as it goes on longer and longer. After a moment the laughter titters off to small chuckles as he bends over to catch his breath. He wipes a fake tear from his eye as he stands straight. Throwing his arms out with flourish he indicates the trapped figures giving him wary looks. “You four have been so much fun! I almost wish it didn’t have to end.” Suddenly he stops, he drops his arms but keeps his smile on them. “But there’s so much more for me in town~. Little boys and singers that would be so much fun to toy with.”

“The others won’t let you get near them!” Kyle spits from beside them. He had been the luckiest when they were hit, both arms were free, allowing him more capacity to defend them. “You’ll be lucky to get even one slimy foot into town!”

Bog tilts his head as if Kyle had said something stupid. “That’s okay.” He trills. “I’ll just kill them too.” And just like that he throws himself forward, acid sprays at them and they flinch from the contact. The rubber sword disappears too, allowing them to slide down the wall, free but with nowhere to go, and no time to defend themselves.

They all flinch as the creature converges on them, shoving themselves back to get more room but there’s nowhere to go, they tense, preparing for the blow. Instinctively, Kyle throws up a wave of flame to defend them from the incoming attack, it shoots horizontally away from them, scorching the walls on either side of them, and whips across the creature. None of them expect it to work but shock ripples through them when it recoils in pain, it whips back clearing the entryway of their alley and comes to a stop beside Michael. It looks up at them hatefully and they see several layers of slime had been burned off from the flames. The four share a look, just for a moment, before they all jump up and split apart again, this time with different targets in mind.

“Switch!” They yell simultaneously. Kyle throws another wave of fire at the creature as he and Andrew converge on its massive frame and the fight begins anew.

* * *

It was over almost comically soon. Even in their heavily injured state Thomas and Tucker together were more than a match for the controlled gold figure. Michael glared hatefully at them and spits scalding insults through bloody teeth, but they ignore it, instead, they focus on bringing down their friend as gently as possible. At this point, Thomas was able to pound off most of the gold gilded to the armor, the chest plate had fallen at some point and was swiftly kicked out of the way, leaving only his boots. With his chest exposed, Thomas was able to aim well-placed punches into the gray figures soft belly, knocking the air out of him. He stumbles back slightly and wheezes. “And I thought you were his friends!” Bog hisses.

“He can beat me up when he wakes up, but first we're gonna beat _you_ out of him!” Thomas shouts as Tucker comes up behind the gray figure and swiftly knocks his legs out from under him. At once, the figures tackle the downed figure, Thomas holds his legs while tucker holds his thrashing arms. Thomas smiles down at the enraged face. “Or at least hold you down long enough for them to get the other you~”

“I’ll kill you all!” he hisses. “I’ll hang your entrails from the ceiling! I’ll bring the rest of your foolish team here and let them scream with grief before I feast on them!”

“Now, now.” Thomas clicks disapprovingly. “No need to get upset just cause you lost.”

Michael smiles suddenly and laughs. “This toy was so much fun to break!” he says suddenly. “He screamed and begged but he-”

“Your little act won’t work.” Tucker, who at this point had pulled the bandana down to rest around his neck, spoke suddenly. “You managed to catch Kyle and Andrew off guard, but we know what you are now, and we know what you’re trying to do.” He leans closer to look him in the eye, anger radiated off of him in waves, but he keeps his voice steady. “We’re going to get him back one way or the other. It’s only a matter of time and then we’ll deal with the aftermath of what you did to him.”

Bog spits a bloody glob at him, it strikes him in the eye, and he recoils, at the same moment he yanks his arms back and strikes Thomas hard in the cheek. He’s up faster than either realizes and is already moving, he manages to grab one of Tucker's daggers but doesn’t attack with it. Instead, he holds it to Michael's throat, similar to earlier with Andrew and Kyle, he digs it deep into the soft skin and faces them. Elation is clear on his face as they both freeze. “I may have lost” he hisses gleefully. “But I’ll take my toy with me!”

They both rush forward at the same moment he draws the dagger across his throat. Or he would have, had he not froze at the last moment. Tucker and Thomas stumble as a wave of heat suddenly overtakes them, fire lights up the room and the crouch down to try and minimize their contact with the scorching air. When it’s over they don’t have time to turn and see what happened because that was the moment Michael decided to collapse.

* * *

Andrew and Kyle make short work of the creature, all too pleased to unleash all of their pent-up anger and frustration on it. It tries to go for Kyle, realizing he was the real threat, it aimed to crush him before the orange figure can do any real damage but fails to act quickly enough. Kyle releases large columns of flames, shooting each one with deadly accuracy as he burns off more layers of ooze. At some point, the creature attempts to go for Andrew to use him as leverage before killing them but no such luck. Andrew was faster, even in his heavily injured state, and the blue figure manages to land several hits with loose debris from the ceiling, effectively acting as a distraction.

Bog roars in frustration at the constant barrage, he spins quickly and manages to snag one foot with his tendril, but he doesn’t have time to celebrate as fire quickly overtakes him. The wave throws him down and he quickly loses his quarry. He swings wildly at the source, but it falls short, he was about half his normal size now. This wasn’t good, if he didn’t figure something out soon, he might actually die. Suddenly the onslaught stops, and he blinks in confusion before freezing, the orange and blue figures were directly in front of him. He hisses at them and starts sliding backwards slowly but stops when the orange one throws a fireball behind him. He glares up at them as they tower over him but soon, he smiles. “What?” he rasps. “Can’t stomach killing me?” he tenses, prepared to attack them again but freezes at their answer.

“No,” Kyle says. “We just wanted to make sure we actually get you.”

With that, he raises both hands and releases all of his flames, Andrew is forced behind Kyle to avoid most of the heat but he’s still hit with a wave of heat that sucks his breath from his lungs, perspiration is quickly nicked off as the intensity evaporates any moisture in the air. When it was over Andrew looks over the orange figure shoulder, the ground is blackened for at least 20 feet, ground zero had created a small hole where the cement had been vaporized. Absolutely nothing remains in the area, not even ash. Kyle stands there for a moment, panting hard from the exertion, but he quickly shakes it off. They don’t have time to celebrate their hollow victory, they don’t even have a chance to rest because right at that moment, Michael collapses in a fit of convulsions.

Kyle and Andrew converge on the three, sliding on their knees the rest of the way they try to evaluate the reason for their friend's sudden fit. An ungodly shriek wretches itself from the gray figure's throat as his back arches completely off the ground. “What’s happening!?” Thomas is trying to force the thrashing figure down with the others quickly coming to help. One of the blood vessels in his eye’s finally bursts and blood blooms across the sclera, concealing the normally green hue behind a dark red.

“I don’t know!” Andrew is searching over Michaels battered body, looking for any sign on what might be causing him to lose it. “Did that thing do something!?”

They don’t have to wait long for their answer, Michael chokes and gags as he tries to bring air into his lungs, his eyes roll back as his throat is completely blocked off, and his convulsions increase in intesity as his body desperately tries to bring oxygen in through his blocked throat.

Finally, after a few agonizing moments, emerging from the gray figures open mouth a thick glob of purple ooze emerges, pulsing and throbbing disgustingly. It falls to the side with a wet slap as the gray figure sucks in mouthfuls of air. Before anyone can react, fast as a snake, it slithers away, just before disappearing it pauses, only for a second, to turn and hiss at them, hatred burning bright in its eyes before disappearing into the shadows. Kyle jumps up, fully prepared to chase the thing down and smear it into a scorch mark on the ground, but Andrew grabs him before he even makes it two steps.

“Let go!” Kyle snaps turning on the blue figure, but all of the fight drains out of him almost immediately. Andrew isn’t looking at him, all of his attention is on the gray figure, who is slowly shifting. His green and brown eyes blink as if trying to chase off a haze, pain registers in his eyes first but it’s quickly replaced with recognition and then fear.

“Michael?” Andrew asks hopefully, he cautiously hefts the figure up, ready at any moment to move in case it was another trick. “That you?”

The gray figure blinks slowly and takes in each of their faces. He looks down at his damaged hands and squeezes the damaged limbs experimentally. Andrew gags as the skin bursts and pus flows free from the open wound, but he still supports the gray figure as he almost quizzically takes in his damaged digits. “Yeah, it's me…” Michael rasps in a painfully thin voice, right before vomiting all over his front.


	5. Good Friends and Goodbyes

Andrew stiffens as the gray figure hacks weakly, and for a few terrifying seconds, they think he may be choking again.

“Michael?” Andrew asks urgently.

The other three move closer, cries of concern on the tips of their tongues, but stop when the gray figure shakes his head sharply. He continues to gag uncontrollably as Andrew leans him over and pats his back. He hacks one more time before bile erupts from his mouth and splashes on his front and onto the ground, globs of leftover slime slide from his mouth as his body rejects what little he has to remove the foreign substance that had taken refuge in his body. Michael falls limp when he’s finished, coughing a bit as he struggles to steady his breathing, and Andrew gently lays him back down.

“Sorry.” he slurs. Andrew just shakes his head and quickly moves to retrieve a water bottle to help wash away the nasty bile.

He doesn’t make it far though before he feels the gray figure lash out to grasp his arm in a vice grip. Michael's eyes had taken on an almost hysteric gleam as he digs his fingers harshly into Andrew's arm. The blue figure stiffens, as do the others, and he prepares to throw the arm off, thinking it was the monster again, but he pauses. Michael is shaking, giving him a desperate look with his wide brown eyes. There is no wide smile, or eyes that roam over them as if they were slabs of meat, just fear and desperation.

“Michael?” Andrew asks, unsure.

The gray figure licks his lips before speaking, his voice is tinny and chokes on the words. “Did I do that?” he rasps.

Andrew is taken aback, confused at the question. “Do what?”

Michael swallows thickly, and moves his eyes over Andrew's chest, following the long gash as it weeps crimson rivers down his torso. The blue figure stiffens as he realizes what he’s talking about. “No.” he answers firmly. “It wasn’t you.”

“But-”

“It wasn’t you.” Andrew insists, he gently shakes his arm free. “Whatever happened wasn’t your fault.”

The gray figure still looks unconvinced, guilt overtakes his expression, but he doesn’t push the matter further as he lets his hand fall limply to the side. He glances around guiltily taking in the other injuries as well. He flinches hard when he spots the bite on Thomas’s arm and the dark burns covering Kyle's hands and drops his head with a small thump. “I’m sorry.” he rasps miserably as he stares forlornly up at the broken ceiling.

“Now don’t do that.” Thomas interjects. “You didn’t do anything!”

The gray figure still doesn’t answer, an ashamed glaze coats his eyes as he silently looks at the ceiling. The four exchange worried looks and decide to change the subject. “Do you remember anything?” Kyle leans in, wincing at the state of their friend. “Like how this happened?”

The gray figure nods, flinching when it agitates the cut on his throat. He looks away still too ashamed to face his injured friends face to face. “He attacked me when I was in the woods.” He rasps. “I don’t know why but he was determined to get me. I remember a few things but they’re really blurry, like I was…dreaming.”

“Do you remember anything specific?” Tucker asks quietly as he shuffles through their bags to pull out the few bandages they had brought. “Like why he kept you here for so long?”

A concentrated look crosses the figure's face as he tries to dredge up the foggy memories. “I remember…laughing.” He screws his face up in concentration. “He wanted something.” Suddenly, horror flashes across his face and he begins pushing himself into a sitting position. The other four protest in concern as he pushes himself upwards, but the gray figure ignores them. Andrew is quick to try and push him back, worried he might aggravate his injuries further.

“What do you think you're doing Michael? Stay down!”

The gray figure resists, grabbing onto his leader's shoulders he forces himself to look up so they’re face to face. “I remember!” he’s shaking hard, either from exertion or fear they don’t know, but he refuses to go down. “He was going to attack people! My friends in town! Are they okay!? Did he hurt them!?”

Andrew is taken aback by the sudden fear in the gray figure’s eyes. “The little kid and the red woman?” Michael shakily nods, desperation in his eyes. “They’re okay.” He says quietly. “He never even got near them.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah Mic.” Thomas is there suddenly, speaking in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. “We saw them both right before coming here. They were fine.”

The figure continues to shake, holding onto Andrew desperately, eventually his injuries catch up to him and he’s forced to lay back down. “This is all my fault.” He whispers miserably, his words blend together as pain and fatigue rush through him. “If I had stayed out of the woods, if I stopped and thought for even one minute why no one ever came out here, none of this would have happened. Instead, I put everyone in danger and got all of you hurt in the process.”

“It’s not like you knew this thing was going to attack you.” Tucker had stopped rummaging through their bags at this point and had shuffled closer to sit beside the others as they worriedly stare down at the injured figure. “So, there’s no point in blaming yourself.”

Michael's face scrunches up as a wave of misery shoots across his marred features. His already weak frame is shaking as black spots dance wildly across his vision. “It doesn’t matter.” he slurs. “I should be able to take care of myself; I shouldn’t have to be saved like some helpless little kid.” He scrunches his brow and closes his eyes as one last wave of pain shoots through him and suddenly he’s out again, falling limply as all of his energy leaves him.

They stiffen and move in closer when Michael drops almost lifelessly. Dark thoughts of the aftereffects from being controlled by the creature for so long crossed their minds quickly. Would they still lose their friend even after everything they went through to get him back?

“Andrew?” Thomas asks, gnawing on his lip anxiously.

Andrew quickly checks the gray figure's pulse while the other three watch anxiously. “He’s okay.” The blue figure murmurs after a moment. He pulls away and gnaws anxiously on the inside of his cheek. “His pulse is steady, but it’s slow. We need to get him out of here as soon as possible.”

They all release a breath, slow still meant alive! But they quickly shake off their relief, their friend was still very much in danger. The raw wound at his throat still bled freely creating a dark red stain beneath him and his body was littered with cuts and bruises from who knows what. The most concerning thing though was his hands. The limbs had been deeply cut on the palms and fingers, from the sword they assumed, but that wasn’t what was so bad. They were badly infected, evident from the way the skin around the cuts were an angry red that had puffed up and spread, almost covering his entire palm in the inflamed color. The scabs that the gray figure had torn earlier were leaking a mixture of pus and blood that leaked a sour smell into the air. Andrew wrinkles his nose at the smell but doesn’t move away, instead he begins to work on cleaning the cuts with some water.

At this point Tucker had moved over to sit on Michaels other side, Thomas and Kyle quickly back away to give them room, and nods at Andrew's actions. “That’s a good idea, it might make it easier to heal when we get back into town.” The blue figure simply nods as he tries to gently remove as much pus and blood from the damaged limbs. The supplies Tucker had brought were now laid out beside him as he prepared to patch up the fallen fighter. He begins with the neck wound, placing a wad of cotton on the gash he begins to gingerly wrap around the injury. “Can you hold up his head?” He didn’t ask anyone in particular.

Thomas is the first to nod and quickly moves to help. “Will he be okay?” he asks quietly after a moment. His attention was solely focused on the gray figures pale face as he breathed shallowly, the air seeming to whistle dangerously, like he would stop at any moment.

The white figure nods as he finishes wrapping his neck. “I think so. He’s hurt but he should be fine if we get him back to town soon.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Thomas says. He gently places Michael's head down and shuffles back to sit next to Kyle. “Do you think he’ll get over what that thing did to him?”

“Yes.” It was Andrew who answers, at this point he had finished cleaning out the cuts and had laid them down to let Tucker wrap them. “He isn’t the type to go down that easy. He’ll get through it.”

Kyle playfully nudges Thomas when the black figure still looks unconvinced. “We'll make sure of it. He has the whole team looking out for him.”

The black figure nods and leans his weight against the fire users’ shoulder, his brow scrunched worryingly, as he watches the rise and fall of Michael's chest. “I hope so.” He mutters.

Tucker at this point moves onto Michael's hands and scowls deeply, that thing really let them get this bad? The cuts were clean now, as clean as you could get them with only water, and he curses his failure to bring any kind of disinfectant. He doesn’t say anything though, opting instead to keep his worries silent, and just continues to wrap them tightly, before sitting back with a sigh. It wasn’t perfect by far, but it would do until they got back to town. When he’s finished, he looks over his depleted supply of bandages with a slight frown and glances around their group. With a grimace, he begins trying to figure out who needs medical attention the most. He glances up to scrutinize each member, taking in each wound and determining its severity. “I’ll need to look at that gash on your chest Andrew.” He says finally.

The blue figure, predictably, waves him off and Tucker feels a wave of exhaustion rush through him at the gesture. “I’ll be fine till we get back, use any leftovers to fix up Thomas’s arm. That bite looks pretty bad.”

“Looking bad isn’t the problem.” Tucker sighs, he pulls up Thomas’s arm to make his point, ignoring the black figures protests. “He’ll survive until we get back to town, you look like you’re about to keel over from blood loss. Have you even seen what you look like right now?”

It was a rhetorical question, none of them looked great and they all knew it, but Andrew had taken the worst out of all of them, the cut had been fine earlier but after constant fighting and agitating it, it had continued to bleed. Nevertheless, the blue figure stands firm, not willing to take up any supplies until everyone else had been dealt with first. “You don’t even have enough bandages to wrap my whole torso. Just give them to Thomas.”

“You can use my cape.” Thomas cuts in tiredly from his flopped over position. He swiftly drags himself upwards to toss the black cloth to Tucker. “I found it when that thing tried to kill us earlier, pretty convenient, huh?”

“Just let him help you ‘Drew” Kyle cuts in when Andrew opens his mouth to object. “Please don’t make us carry you back too.”

Andrew hesitates, Kyle made a good point, if he passed out from blood loss on the way back then they’d have two unconscious people to deal with. He gnaws on his lip as he places a hand on the long gash. Even now it still bled, he knew he wouldn’t make it back to town, not with it bleeding like it was.

“…Fine.” He says after a moment. “But everyone else is getting fixed first when we get back.”

The white figure nods, satisfied, before moving over to sit in front of Andrew. He bites his tongue as Tucker cleans the bloody gash before taking the rest of the bandages and wrapping as much as he could before retrieving the blue cape to cover the rest. He pulls it tight in hopes of staunching the blood. It wasn’t a replacement for a healing, but it would do until they got back.

“Better?” he asks after he finishes.

The light blue figure nods, sighing in relief he places a hand on his chest. The sting is still there, and a deep weariness seems like it made it’s home in his bones. He tentatively looks around the small group, they looked awful and the thought of the long trek home made him want to pass out right there, but they were alive, and that was more than he could ask for. With a deep breath he pushes himself upwards, the world tilts worryingly before it rights itself. “Ready?” he asks.

The others share a look and answer by pushing themselves up as well, each gives their own determined nod. “Good. Let’s go then.” They manage to gently situate Michael on Andrew's back, it was difficult, he was dead weight after all, but he refused to pass on the burden. He hefts up the figure and they cautiously begin the trudge through the dark building, jumping at any sound and staying wary of any shadows, but, eventually, they make it outside. The sun was still high enough overhead to send dapples of sunlight through the black trees, that was a relief if anything, the thought of traveling through the forest after dark made Andrew feel nauseous.

Thomas squints up at the sunlight. “How long were we in there?” he asks.

Tucker shrugs beside him, he clutches his ribs as his breath hitches slightly. “Does it really matter?”

It felt like hours since they had found the building and the argument between Andrew and James that morning felt like a lifetime ago. Andrew sighs, “Let’s get going, we have a long walk back.” The others groan at the reminder but suck it back at Andrews scowl. With a heavy sigh, they turn and make their way to tree line. When they begin their trek through the dark woods once again Andrew spares only one last glance at the decimated building. He scowls at the forgotten structure, allowing his glare to pass through each window and doorway, he adjusts his grip on Michaels limp form before turning on his heel to follow his team.

The trek back is hard, more than once they have to stop and collect their breath as their various injuries flare and recede like the tide. Thomas had taken to helping Tucker walk at some point when he almost collapsed, and Kyle was very visibly limping, the skin on his hands were extremely fragile as more than once it tore like paper and bled watery drops. Even so, they don’t complain, they simply support each other silently. Andrew almost cries when he finally sees the edge of the forest, and one at a time they exit the woodland, stumbling over their feet as they force themselves to make the last hundred feet. Andrew is surprised to see the team in front of the small wooden house, it wasn’t sunset yet, but he didn’t care. Someone calls out to them when they appear, but he can’t make out who spoke or what was said as the world continues to twist worryingly.

Cries of shock are thrown up from the group as they see the state their friends are in. Moving together, they converge, catching the injured members of their party as they finally collapse, relief dragging them to their knees. Only Andrew stays standing, Michaels weight on his back keeps him upright, though not for long. A gentle and insistent tug pulls at the dead weight and he relinquishes his burden, knowing it could only be one of his team.

Andrew blinks once, and suddenly his second is there. James' face is calm, but his eyes betray the storm of emotion brewing inside, fear and worry rule his eyes, but also anger, not at Andrew, not completely anyway, but at whatever did this to them. Andrew smiles, already he feels himself going under, black fog sweeps in at the edge of his vision.

“You were right,” He slurs, “We shouldn’t have split up.” And then he’s gone. He hears a yell and feels someone catching him clumsily but that’s all he can process before everything is silent.

* * *

“You’ve lost~”

Andrew freezes at the voice, he whips around to follow it as it twines around him, cold and dangerous, almost choking him. “What have you done!?” he demands. “Where are they!?” Where was _he_? He couldn’t remember.

The voice laughs, it sends chills down his spine. “You doomed them…” it jeers. “Led them straight to their deaths~”

Suddenly he’s thrown hard across the dark abyss, he bounces and skids until he comes to a sudden stop when he hits a large mass. He pushes himself up on shaking arms and looks up to see what he hit and freezes. “Shit!” he throws himself back as revulsion shoots through him. Kyle, Thomas, and Tucker lay in front of him. Their bodies are twisted and gnarled as if they had been thrashed around repeatedly, bones jutted from paper-like skin and their necks twist at sharp angles. Blood runs and creates large crimson puddles around them. The worst thing is their eyes though, their terror and pain still visible, telling him exactly what they felt when they died. Andrew shudders and looks away, grief courses through him as he collapses. “No…,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Look what you’ve done,” it whispers on his left; he can almost feel the heat from its breath. He barely has time to turn, catching the barest glint of gold, before a sharp pain slices through him. He can’t scream, his voice comes in a harsh breath, and he falls back, the darkness consumes him as he struggles to pull in air.

* * *

Andrew jolts up, a shout on the edge of his throat, as he throws himself forward. He only stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. “Calm down man.” He hears an anxious voice from his left. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, he looks over to see Sean crouched down next to him, concern clear in his eyes.

“Sean?” Andrew glances around in confusion, he was back at Michael's, scattered around the room was the remaining Slush Defenders, all were giving their leader varying looks of concern. He sags in relief when he makes out the forms of the other four a bit farther away. “What happened?”

The figure gives him a strained smile as he releases his hold on his leader’s shoulder to sit back. “We should be the ones askin' you that. You all stumbled outta the woods looking half dead before you all but collapsed, scared the living crap out of us.”

Andrew wipes the sweat from his eyes as he gets his breathing under control. He glances down to see that the old bandages and Thomas’ cape had been removed and replaced with clean white bandages. “It’s a long story.” He sighs. He glances up suddenly at the still forms of the others. “How are the others?”

“They’re fine.” The purple figure says glancing back to look at them as well. “A little worse for wear, but okay.” He turns to look back at his leader. “You’re the first one to wake up.” He looks as if he wants to say more but doesn’t know what to say.

They hear the front door open and close and look over to see James entering the room. His face is drawn into a tight grimace as he trudges around everyone to make his way over to the table at the back of the room. He glances up and meets Andrew's eyes and, without pausing, he pivots on his heel to approach the blue figure. “You’re awake.” He says when he gets close enough. He glances down at Sean and the purple figure scampers back to stand with the others as they nervously watch the two.

Andrew answers without pause. “I am.” He pauses. “You want to talk.”

It wasn’t a question. “Can you stand?” he asks.

Andrew answers by pushing himself up, stopping only once as the sudden movement pulls sharply at the wound on his chest. James allows him to get to his feet but doesn’t offer to help, a blessing in disguise, as he stands stiffly in front of his leader, arms crossed. Only once he’s standing, sweat pouring from his face and breath whistling harshly through his throat, does James offer support, throwing Andrews arm around his shoulder he leads the blue figure to the door. The group of defenders split allowing a wide berth for the leader and the second to traverse through the crowded room, no one says a word as they watch them disappear through the rickety door with a slam.

James leads Andrew over to the edge of the porch and sets him down. “I can walk you know.” He grumbles.

James rolls his eyes. “Nemesis managed to heal that gash, but it can still reopen, and I don’t think they want to have to come all the way out here to fix you up again just cause you _think_ you can do anything.”

Andrew stiffens at the sharp tone but doesn’t retort. Instead, he turns his attention to the trees in the distance, he swallows thickly as he waits for the inevitable scolding from his second. His mind still weighs heavily with the afterimages of his nightmare as guilt settles heavily in his stomach. He deserved to be yelled at, after his failure in the woods it was more than fair.

Instead, he surprised when James thumps down next to him. “I’m not pissed at you ‘drew,” he says as he sits down with a huff and leans into his hands to examine the swath of trees in the distance. Andrew distantly realizes it was sunset now, the sun cuts sharply on the horizon, bathing the area in shades of orange and red. “What happened?” he asks quietly.

Andrew purses his lips. “We were attacked.”

“Yeah, no shit.” James retorts. “Care to elaborate on why you all came out of the woods looking half dead? You scared the shit out of everyone, I want to know how it happened.” His words are sharp, but his tone is even, Andrew glances at the green figure. At first glance he came off as nonchalant, but closer inspection shows a furrowed brow and clenched fists.

Andrew looks away says nothing at first, trying to find the words to explain what happened. “We almost lost Mic…” he speaks quietly, James doesn’t comment, only inclines his head to indicate he was still listening. “I almost got us all killed.” Guilt oozes from his words as he recaps what happened. “When we went out there, we found Mic's trail almost immediately, I thought we could handle whatever was out there. I was wrong.” Andrew shudders from the memory, which James, thankfully, does not comment on. “There was something out there. It was controlling him, it attacked us. It almost killed us.”

James looks at him. “You said it was controlling him?” he glances down to trace the gauze covering his cut. It was clearly a sword wound and only one person they knew carried that kind of weapon. “Did he manage to hit any of you?”

Andrew presses his lips together and presses a hand to the bandages. “It was before we knew. That thing caught me off guard when we managed to get him away from it.”

James swears lightly under his breath and brings his hands up to rub tiredly at his eyes. “What exactly was out there ‘drew?” he sounded exhausted, he had probably been the one to deal with everything since Andrew and the others dramatic return. He would have to make it up to him when they returned back to the city. “No one can seem to guess what could have possibly taken out you and three other fighters at once and its setting everyone on edge. Should we send another team out there? Do we need to deal with this now before we leave?” 

“No!” Andrew snaps. “No one’s going out there! I don’t want to hear anything about the guys going on some revenge quest alright!?” He feels sick, thinking of anymore if his team going out there, especially with the echoes of its threats in his mind. That forest was treacherous and that thing no doubt knew it like the back of its hand. No, this was one fight the Slush Defenders would leave, as much as the thought of letting that thing get away with what it did pissed him off, he would much rather have his team alive than torn apart by some monster.

James squints at him after his outburst but stays silent. His persistent stare succeeds in getting under Andrew's skin and he looks away, but he can still feel his gaze prickle on his skin. Andrew takes a deep breath and places his chin in his hands, he suddenly feels older than he is, feels a deep weariness in his bones that seemed to get worse every year and seems to intensify every time a disaster hits the team. He lets the silence reign over them for a bit longer before speaking again and James, mercifully, lets him. The green figure turns away to stare into the swath of trees, allowing his leader the time he needs to collect his thoughts.

“I fucked up,” Andrew says quietly after a few moments of quiet. “Almost got everyone killed and barely managed to get everyone back here before we all collapsed.” He drops his hands and stares down at them disdainfully. “I let some thing get the better of us and everyone else almost paid the price.” He sighs “I feel like the shittiest leader sometimes James, I thought the Tower getting destroyed and getting kidnapped was the worst it could get but this really takes the cake. Cause this time, it wasn’t just my life I was putting in danger. Maybe-” he exhales and allows his shoulders to sink low. “Maybe it’s time for me to step down and let someone who knows what they’re doing take over.”

“I think you need to stop saying stuff like that Andrew.” James says after a moment. Andrew says nothing, only stares angrily down at his clenched fists. “You say you’re a bad leader but only you managed to actually find Michael. I don’t know what happened out there but whatever had him seemed like it was getting bored. If we had gone with my plan and stuck together it may have just outright killed him before we ever even found his trail.” Andrew scoffs and James sighs at the sound. “Saying you should step down won’t fix anything ‘drew. They won’t listen to me the way they listen to you.” Andrew opens his mouth, but James holds up a hand to stop him. “They follow orders when I ask, but they follow you, all you have to do is point and they’ll go. They trust you, so I think you should trust yourself too. I know it’s hard, but no one can do this the way you do. No one can just be a leader, and they know it isn’t easy.” He places a hand on Andrew's shoulder. “If you won’t believe in yourself at least believe in the guys, if they trust you and follow you than you have to believe it’s for a good reason.”

Andrew sighs deeply. He still felt his doubts, the ones that never completely leave him, but he thinks he can keep trying, at least for his team. He’ll just have to try harder and be the great leader they seem to think he is. “Okay James.” He bumps slightly into the other figure. “I’ll try.”

James smirks and nods. “Good.” The two dissolve into silence once again after that, but this time it was comfortable. Andrew may still have his uncertainties but that was what he had his team for, they always managed to lift him up when he was at his lowest and that was something he wouldn’t ever be able to replace.

“So, what happened while we were away?” Andrew asks. “Did you guys manage to find out anything?”

James blows a low whistle. “The guys got about halfway to the dojo before being turned around by some blue figure. Said no one had been out there ‘cept him so we all converged on the town again.” James pauses here as if to consider his next words carefully. “Some of the guys got into a bit of trouble…”

Andrew narrows his eyes. “Trouble how?”

“They got into a bit of a fight, nothing too bad, but it got Nemesis involved. They got into it with the leader and caused some property damage. Took some time but I managed to talk her out of kicking us out. It helped that she and Mic know each other.”

Andrew turns to glare into the window behind them, the curtains swish as if someone had just ducked out of view. “I’m going to have a talk with them when I get back in there.” He says more to the window than to his second. “I warned them not to involve Nemesis.”

James waves it off. “Don’t bother. I already handled it. They got their asses handed to them by Nemesis’s leader and they’re going to fix the damages tomorrow in town. No harm, no foul.”

Andrew turns away to look at James with one eyebrow cocked. “She beat them?”

James snorts. “Let’s just say there’s a reason Michael warned us not to get into it with her. I barely managed to calm her down before she plowed through half of us.”

“Serves them right,” Andrew grumbles. “I should make them clean every bathroom in the Tower and then some when we get back.”

“Cut ‘em some slack ‘drew” their pride took one helluva hit. No reason to add onto it.”

Andrew sighs but relents. “Alright, but I don’t want to hear any more crap from them 'till we get back.” 

James is stopped from answering by the sound of the door opening. They turn to see Sean poking his head out the door, he balks only slightly when Andrew turns his glare on him. “Tucker and Thomas are up. They want to see you.”

Andrew nods and Sean scampers out of view. He stands and tentatively places a hand over the gash out of instinct as James pushes himself to his feet. “Time to head in. It about time to turn in for the night anyways.”

His second raises an amused eyebrow. “You just spent the better part of the afternoon knocked out and you’re still tired?”

Andrew elbows him. “You try almost getting cut in half and then you can tell me when to be tired.” James laugh Together they turn and make their way back onto the rickety house.

* * *

Andrew stirs as something pulls him out if his deep slumber and he blearily pushes himself up. The floor is littered with the other defenders in various states of slumber, piled on top of each other or elbowing each other in their sleep, the dark room is alight with snores and grunts. Andrew rubs the last dregs of sleep from his eyes as he glances around. Everything seemed okay, everyone was accounted for, so what had woken him? Slight movement from across the room has him suddenly look over towards the small window in the front of the house. Andrew tilts his head when he spots Michael; still wrapped in thick bandages, sitting by the window as he contemplatively gazes into the inky darkness outside. The gray figure is partially turned towards him and Andrew can make out the slightest scrunch of his brow as he scans the area outside. The blue figure watches him for a moment before pushing himself up. Carefully tiptoeing around the bodies splayed around the room he comes to sit next to his friend. The gray figure doesn’t say anything, just continues to scan the swath of trees on the edge of his home.

“Mic?” Andrew says quietly. “Everything okay?”

Michael squints hard at the horizon as if he were trying to pinpoint something but eventually he sighs in defeat. “He’s still out there.”

Andrew glances over, scanning the stretch of trees he doesn’t make out anything, just large and imposing blobs from the vegetation outside. The leaves and bushes sway ominously from the breeze, but nothing can be made out from the pitch black. “Are you sure?” he asks after a moment.

The gray figure doesn’t reply, he just continues his search. Periodically scanning the forest with bloodshot eyes. Andrew watches him, concern swells in his chest at the almost obsessive way his friend keeps watch. “Michael.” He says quietly. “Maybe we can wake up a few of the guys? We can go over the edge of the forest and look around.” He doesn’t even get a chance to move before the gray figure latches onto his arm.

“No!” he snaps in a harsh whisper.

Andrew is taken aback by how desperate he sounds. “Mic?”

The gray figure flinches but doesn’t let go. Licking his cracked lips, he quietly speaks. “Please don’t. I’ve already-” he pauses, guilt layering his tone. “I’ve already caused too much trouble for everyone.” He lets go of Andrew's arm and sits back, allowing his eyes to continue to scour the area outside. “Just let them sleep, I can at least keep watch to make up for it.” he stops for only a moment to glance at Andrew, guilt tripling as he takes in the long cut along his torso. “You should get some sleep too; you’ve been through a lot.”

“And you haven’t!” Andrew says, still trying to keep his voice low and failing. He grabs the gray figure, forcing him to look him in the eyes. “None of this was your fault! None of us blame you for what happened. It could have happened to anyone!”

Michael still doesn’t look convinced, his eyes list to the side as he tries to avoid his leaders piercing silver eyes. “but it happened to me. And it was my fault, I shouldn’t have gone out there, and I should have been able to take him, but he got the upper hand.” He closes his eyes. “I put everyone in danger because of my own stupidity.” He opens his eyes and a slight sheen is covering them as he looks back at Andrew, he shrugs off his hands from his shoulders. “I moved out here because I thought I was strong enough to take care of myself but the first real fight I get into almost got me killed and put everyone I care about in danger.” He chokes. “I almost got you and the others killed out there.”

“No, that thing almost killed us, not you!” Andrew hisses quietly. The gray figure flinches at the sudden anger and Andrew forces himself to calm down. Easing the tension out of his shoulders he takes a deep breath. “It wasn't your fault.” He repeats. He places a hand on the silent figures shoulder. “Please believe me when I say that.” Michael doesn’t answer, just pulls away and keeps his gaze trained outside. Andrew furrows his brow and sits back, tilting his head back to examine the ceiling when suddenly a thought strikes him.

“Do you remember when I was taken by the blues?”

The gray figure stays silent, but Andrew continues anyways. “I remember everyone had to come and save me; the tower got destroyed too. And then right after almost everyone got captured by Big Blue. I remember I felt like the biggest failure ever.” He chuckles condescendingly. “I thought I was the worst leader ever, and I was more than ready to hand in my resignation that day.” Michael looks at him then, opening his mouth to object, but Andrew keeps going. “But you guys managed to change my mind. I made a mistake, but you didn’t hold it over my head or tell me I was a failure, you came to get me and then we all managed to save everyone.”

“You didn’t make a mistake,” Michael mumbles quietly, “The blues got the drop on all of us that day.”

Andrew smirks. “That thing got the drop on you too.”

Michael sighs, “It’s not the same.” 

Andrew cocks his head to the side. “Oh? How so? Let’s see.” he leans forward and begins counting off his fingers. “We were both attacked and taken hostage, everyone had to come save us, it resulted in a fight.” He leans away again to scrutinize the figure. “The only difference is that mine resulted in most of the team being taken captive.” The gray figure ignores him, but he can see him shaking slightly. “So, I got a question Mic. If you’re saying that this was all your fault does that mean everything that happened at Slusher Tower was my fault too? Should I turn over leadership to James and retire? It’s your call.”

Andrew watches as the gray figure keeps shaking, his hands clench into fists in front of him but after a moment all of the tension drains out of him. “No…” he says quietly. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Andrew cocks an eyebrow. “And?”

Michael hunches inward. “It’s not my fault either.”

“Exactly.” Andrew nods, satisfied, and begins pushing himself away from the table. “What do you say we get some sleep? Me and the guys got to get ready to leave early tomorrow and I don’t want to be half asleep.” He pauses when the gray figure makes no move to get up. he wasn’t looking outside anymore but he wasn’t looking at Andrew either, instead his gaze is planted firmly on the wooden table. “Michael?”

The gray figure mumbles something quietly but Andrew can’t make it out. “Pardon?”

Michael bites his lip and looks out the window again. “What if he’s still out there?” he says, his tone takes on a fearful edge as he keeps talking. “What if he’s just waiting for us to fall asleep so he can get us all?”

Andrew pauses. Now he understood why Michael was awake. Why he was so hellbent on keeping watch when they were safer than they had been in more than a week. He was afraid. Andrew sighs and settles back into the chair. He leans forward to rest his elbows on the table and rests his head in his hands, pursing his lips, he takes in his friend’s tense shoulders and bloodshot eyes.

“I think you should come with us tomorrow.” He says after a beat of consideration.

The gray figure whips around at that but quickly recovers. He looks down and shakes his head. “I can’t ‘drew,” he says quietly. “I know I’ve been gone a while but this is my home.” He sighs. “I just wouldn’t fit in the city anymore.”

Andrew holds up his palm to halt the gray figures rambling. “I don’t mean forever. Just until you heal up enough to handle yourself.” And until you get your confidence back goes unsaid. “It would make us feel better too.” He admits. “I think more than a few of the guys were planning to camp here till you got better.”

The gray figure looks down again and shakes his head slightly. “I just…don't want to be a burden.” He cringes slightly before turning away again. “Please just go back to sleep ‘drew. I don’t want to wake anyone else up.”

“Little late for that.” A voice suddenly pipes up from behind them. The two start at the sudden interruption before turning to see the rest of the defenders awake. Some rub their eyes and others lean on the shoulders of their neighbors as they try to push the last dredges of sleep from their minds, but it was clear most had been awake for a while. After being revealed Hang allows a small fire to spark to life on his palm, bathing the room in a warm glow. It was Thomas who spoke, and after getting their attention he continues, “And you aren’t a burden. So, let’s stop that right now.”

At being caught Michael allows a slight blush to cross his features but continues to argue, nonetheless. “We don’t know what Bog did to me, for all we know he could take control again. Then what? Are you guys really going to want to deal with that?” A few murmurs flow through the room, much of the team was still not aware of what happened in the forest, a fact that Andrew wanted to keep quiet until they returned home, lest some of the more exuberant members decided to go on a quest for revenge.

Andrew shrugs. “Yeah.” He gives the figure a serious look. “You’re our friend. If we have to fight one hundred monsters to save you, we would.” He softens. “We know you’d do the same if any of us asked.” A chorus of agreements rose up from the group behind him. The gray figure looks away again, but Andrew knows he’s close to cracking. He places a hand on his shoulder, forcing Michael to look at him again. “You aren’t a burden. You’re our friend and we want you to come with us tomorrow.” A thought suddenly strikes him. “And I know we aren’t the only ones who think so.” He reaches into the pouch on his hip and pulls free the green pen and small purple flower. He lays them in front of Michael causing the gray figure to look up in surprise. He picks up the Stellapen gently as if he’s afraid it’ll shatter.

“I thought I lost this…” he whispers. His gaze drops down the small poppy. “This is-”

“That kid gave it to me before we left to find you. He said its been his good luck charm, he told me to give it to you.” Andrew watches as he gently picks up the flower to twirl it between his fingers. “he doesn’t think you’re a burden all he wants is for you to be safe. So, what do you say?”

Michael bites his lip and glances to the side. Andrew waits and he can hear the others practically holding their breath as they wait for his answer. Finally, “I’ll have to let everyone know…”

Cheers raise up from the group. “Hell yes!” Thomas whoops. “The whole teams gonna be back together again! The blues better stay quiet if they know what’s good for them!” Excited chatter rises up from the outburst until the little house is filled with the cheerful whispers.

Andrew smiles and notes that Michael is giving a half-smirk as well. He stretches and moves to stand. “Looks like no one’s getting any sleep tonight.” He chuckles. he glances over to see Michael still eyeing the darkness outside apprehensively. “C’mon.” he says offering his hand to the gray figure. “Let’s go talk. I’m sure everyone’s dying to know what you’ve been up to out here.”

Michael looks up at him. He eyes the offered hand before taking it with a smile. “That sounds like fun.”

Andrew slings an arm around the figure as they make their way into the throng of excited fighters. “We’ll see. They’ll have you talking for hours man”

“That’s alright.” Michael laughs as he cradles the small flower in his palm and attaches the pen around his waist, the sound causes Andrew to smile further. 

* * *

Michael sighs, beside him Thomas gives him a quizzical look. “You good?” he asks.

The gray figure nods but his brow furrows. “This isn’t going to be easy.” It was the next day. The team had split once again with Andrew, Tucker, Thomas, Kyle, and Michael heading towards Lillian’s house while the rest of the Defenders headed into town to repair the damages to the town from yesterdays fight. Michael still remembers his disbelief when Jade informed him of what the rest of the team had done while alone in town. “Why’d the guys have to pick a fight with Jade?” he groans.

Thomas laughs. “Did you really think any of us could be trusted by ourselves?”

“I mean, we are a bunch of adults, so yeah?” Tucker points out from behind Thomas. He was walking a bit slower due to his still sore ribs, but he was still able to keep pace with everyone else.

“Irrelevant.” Thomas sniffs.

“Bit of a big word for you bud.” Kyle teases and ducks a fake swing from the black figure.

Michael rolls his eyes as the three begin to banter, a smile manages to work itself onto his face despite himself, but it quickly falls when he sees their destination over the hill. He sighs as the wooden fence and stone house comes into view. Next to him, Andrew gives him a curious look. The blue figure bumps lightly into his shoulder. “You good Mic?”

Michael glances at him and nods. “Yeah.” He sighs, when the blue figure continues to give him a questioning look, he finally relents. “Do you think he’ll be mad?” he asks quietly.

Andrew cocks an eyebrow. “At you? I don’t think he has it in him to be mad at you. Why?”

“I disappeared and now I’m about to tell him I’m leaving again.” Michael wrings his hands nervously in front of him as his anxiety spikes. “What if he takes it badly?”

Andrew sighs and places a comforting hand on his shoulder as the group comes to a stop near the entrance to the garden, once again Lillian has his back to them and is busy working on his flowers. “I think he’ll understand Mic. You went through a lot.” Andrew smirks. “He cares about you, so you need to trust that he’ll be alright. Okay?”

Thomas pipes up. “That kid practically worships the ground you walk on. I think you’ll be alright.”

Michael bites his lip but with the others insistent pushing he finally makes his way into the small enclosed area. He quietly approaches the small figure and comes to a stop only a few paces away. Suddenly the small gray figures bright blue eyes are on him and he feels all of his confidence wither up inside of him. He waves awkwardly “Hey, Lil-”

“You’re back!” the small figure suddenly throws himself forward and wraps his arms around Michaels waist. Michael is taken aback as he looks down at the small figure, he gently lays one hand on top of his friend’s head causing Lillian to look up at him.

Michael winces when he sees tears beginning to form in the child’s eyes. “I’m back.” He confirms. He gently removes Lillian’s arms from around him and kneels down to look him in the eyes. He keeps one hand on his shoulder as he talks. “I heard what you did for me. You saved my life. Thank you.”

Lillian shoves his mask up and wipes his eyes with a smile. “You’re welcome.” He sniffs. “I knew something was wrong, I just knew it!”

Michael nods. “You’re pretty smart kiddo. Calling on my friends to come help was clever.” Michael glances over shoulder at the four who were watching the exchange from the other side of the fence. “I’m not sure anyone else could have done the job.” He turns back to Lillian. “I didn’t only come here to tell you thanks.”

Lillian furrows his brow. “What is it?”

Michael closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and tightness his grip slightly on the child’s shoulder. “I’m…leaving for a while. The guys offered to let me stay with them in Slush City and I agreed.” He begins to ramble. “But it's not for long! I’ll only be gone for a month tops! And I’ll try to write and-” he’s cut off when two small hands suddenly grip his free hand, he looks up to see Lillian giving him a small smile.

“Okay.” He says quietly. “I just wanted you to come back okay.”

Michael gives him a small confused look. “You’re not upset?”

Lillian shakes his head and tightens his grip. “I was scared you weren’t ever coming back.” He admits quietly. “But now I know you’re okay and I know you’ll be with people who can protect you.” Lillian gives him another hug. “And I know you’ll be back this time.”

Michael doesn’t speak for a moment, but a smile quickly overtakes him. he returns the hug as a warm feeling begins to spread through him. “Yeah, I’ll be back. Nothing could keep me away.” He breaks the hug and pulls back to look at his small friend. “I’ve also got something for you.” Lillian blinks in surprise when a sudden heavyweight is placed over his shoulders. Looking down he gasps when he sees the bright red cape had been tied around his neck. “I want you to keep this safe until I get back.”

Lillian looks up in surprise. “Are you sure?” he asks. “Don’t you need it?”

Michael laughs and shakes his head. “Not for a while kiddo, I think you could have more use for it here.”

Lillian is practically vibrating with excitement, the cape, while short on Michael, swept past Lillian’s ankles and drags on the ground. “I’ll keep it safe!” he promises. He turns and allows it to catch the air as he twirls and jumps. “I promise!”

Michael laughs again before pushing himself to his feet. “I know you will. I have to go talk to a few more people kiddo but I’ll see you later alright?”

Lillian nods and quickly follows Michael to the garden gate. The two share one last hug before they all turn to go. “Bye!” Lillian waves from the gate. “Thank you for finding him!” he calls. “And sorry you got hurt!” he says as an afterthought. “I’ll send some flowers when I can!”

The others laugh and wave back as they make their way down the hill. “Don’t worry about it!” Thomas yells back. “S’part of the job!”

They wave until the small house is a dot in the distance before turning to make their way into town. Michael sighs in relief. “One down, two to go.” He mutters.

* * *

Michael looks around in disbelief. “What did they do?” his gaze roams over the broken wood and shattered glass. “How did Jade not kill them?!”

“They better be lucky I wasn’t around to kill them…” Andrew mutters under his breath.

They continue through the small town with Michael waving hello to several passerby’s welcoming him back or calling out to him in concern when they catch sight of his heavily bandaged body. At some point, they pass by James monitoring several other Defenders working on repairing a damaged roof. He glances at them as they approach. “How’d it go with the kid?” he asks.

“Good. He took it well,” he glances up at the group on the roof, “How’s it going with the repairs?”

James rolls his eyes. “Great if they’d stop messing around. Someone’s already fallen off twice, Sean’s been able to stop any injuries but it’s only a matter of time until someone breaks something.”

Andrew rolls his eyes next. “I swear they’re all going to be on toilet duty for the next month.”

“I don’t think we have enough toilets for that ‘drew” Thomas snickers but chokes when Andrew turns to glare at him. The blue figure sighs and turns back around. “Have you seen Penny?” he asks.

James nods and flicks his thumb over his shoulder. “She’s over by the bar, said she has to get ready for a big show tonight.”

“Thanks.” With a final nod and a threat from Andrew to the figure on the roof, they trudge past the green figure. Michael fidgets with the small item he would be leaving with his friend.

Tucker leans over to curiously look at what he’s messing with. “What is that?”

Michael glances at him and shows him what he was rolling between his hands. “It’s my tip cup.” He holds it up to show them the elegant flower that he’d sketched over one side as he rubs the back of his head self conscientiously. “When I was trying to get some extra cash at the bar, she managed to help me get some confidence.” He blushes slightly. “She’s a really great person.”

“She’s pretty cute too~” Thomas remarks. Michael turns to give him a warning look all bashfulness gone. “She has a boyfriend. Don’t even think about asking her out.”

Thomas’ jaw snaps shut as the others burst out laughing. Kyle bumps Thomas in the shoulder as he starts pouting. “Shut down before you could even start!” he wheezes. Thomas shoves the orange figure lightly, but he eventually joins in their laughter.

“Whatever. Long-distance isn’t for me anyway.” More laughter erupts from the group.

Tucker has to stop and bend over as the mirth causes stress on his recently healed ribs. Andrew pats the white figures back as Tucker wheezes. “Please T. You’re literally going to kill me before we even leave town.”

“Guys! We’re here!” Michael silences the group as they stop in front of the bar where he regularly performs with Penny. He glances back as he begins heading down the stairs. “You can stay here. This won’t take long.”

“Aww, I wanted to stay goodbye too.” Thomas whines halfheartedly.

Michael rolls his eyes. “I’ll pass on the message.” He snarks before turning to trudge down the stairs. The basement is dark when he enters but he quickly spots his red friend when he reaches the bottom. He watches her for a moment, she was obviously busy. The red figure was busy talking with the owner of the bar as she gestured around indicating several areas around the stage. He almost loses his nerve, was this weird? To come all the way out here to give her a cup and then leave? Maybe he should just go… he would see her when he got back after all and she probably wouldn’t even notice he was gone.

“G?” he’s suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when a voice calls out to him. He looks up to see Penny making her way over to him, her brow is furrowed as she looks him up and down, taking in his various injuries. He suddenly feels self-conscious. When she gets close enough, she seems to hesitate as she holds her hands out, uncertain, to hover nearby. “Oh, G. What happened?” she whispers.

He sighs and holds his arms out jokingly. “Kinda got into a fight, kinda lost.” His joke falls flat, and he slowly drops his arms back down. He rubs the back of his head and gets straight to the point. Taking a deep breath, he looks at her. “I got attacked out in the woods. It…held me hostage for a while.” He says quietly. She nods for him to continue. “I came by to tell you I’m leaving for a while. My friends managed to save me, but I got pretty messed up. I just need some time away.” He brings out the cup and feels his face flare up. “I wanted to leave this with you, as a promise I guess? To let you know I’m coming back.” He drops his gaze as he holds the cup out. Half embarrassed and half worried that she wouldn’t accept it. He’s surprised when he feels her gently taking the cup.

Penny smiles as she looks down at the cup as gently traces the design on the front with her thumb. “Thank you.” she says quietly. “And I’m sorry.” Michael flinches when he sees her bottom lip tremble slightly. “I should have been more worried when you didn’t show up for our shows.” She breathes as she rubs her eyes. “I’m a terrible friend.”

“No!” Michael quickly interjects as he allows his hands to hover over her, uncertain about what to do to comfort her, a mirror of her earlier fretting. She looks up at him and he quickly continues. “Just because you didn’t drop everything to look for me doesn’t mean anything! I’m an adult! You shouldn’t be responsible for keeping an eye on me!” she still looks unconvinced, so he keeps going. He lays a hand on each of her shoulders. “You are one of my best friends.” He insists. “Please never think you’re anything less! Okay?” Penny bites her lip and looks down, but he gently shakes her to get her to look back up. “Okay?” he repeats.

After a beat, the red figure finally smiles and nods. “Okay.” She says quietly. Satisfied, Michael releases her and steps back to allow her to compose herself.

“I’ll be gone for about a month.” He continues after she dries her eyes. “Maybe longer, but I will come back. I promise.”

Penny nods, smiling gently. “You better. The shows won’t be the same without you.” 

Michael smiles and holds out his hand, but she surprises him by hugging him instead. He tentatively returns the embrace and pats her back. After a moment she pulls away, “Say bye to Nick for me alright?”

She nods. “I will. He’s going to be upset. He loves your shows.”

He turns and begins making his way back up the stairs, waving goodbye over his shoulder. “When I get back, I’ll put one on just for you guys and Lillian, alright?”

“I’m going to hold you to that!” she waves as he turns to go, clutching the small Styrofoam cup close. “It better be your best ever.”

“I’ll practice just for you guys!” he laughs, with one final wave and a bow from each of them, he opens the door and emerges back into the sunlight.

* * *

Michael turns to give the small town one last look. From where he stands, he can just barely make out the tiny dots of people scurrying around as they rush to their destinations. He heaves a deep sigh, he had talked to Jade before leaving, letting her know what happened and also warning her that Bog might go after Penny and Lillian. She had sworn he wouldn’t even get one toe into town if she had anything to say about it.

Michael laughs, remembering the almost crazed look in her eyes. She also made him promise to never bring the Slush Defenders back ever again or she’d tear his house apart. He gazes down at the dark and imposing castle in the center of town and knows it’s in good hands, she had protected this place for years after all. He smiles as his gaze sweeps over the bar where he and Penny perform and Lillian’s house on the edge of the small town. Eventually, his gaze drifts to his small house, his home, and he sighs. There was so much to do when he got back... It seemed like there was always something else to do. Finally, his gaze lands on the dark sea of trees and he shivers. He unconsciously clenches his hands, allowing the sting to ground him, as he scans the dark forest. He swears even from here he can feel Bogs gaze on him, waiting for the opportunity to get him again.

Could he take him if he came back? Or would it be like before? Or worse, would Bog use him to go after the defenders? Michael clenches his jaw and glares at the forest. No, he would never get taken like that again, even if he had to die, he wasn’t ever going to let the slime monster take advantage of him ever again. He’s shaken from his thoughts when someone calls out to him, he turns and sees most of the group was getting farther ahead and turns to go. He spares one last glance at the forest before turning and running to catch up.

It would be okay. Bog couldn’t get him now; and he was in good company.

He would be alright.


End file.
